Shadow in the Breeze
by Shadow-Star Hatake
Summary: Shadow Hatake lives on the streets of New York but she different than other humans, so she hides in the shadows of the night and fights to live each day. One night she encounters a fight with four turtles and her life changed forever. But when the past she tried to hide comes after her new family, Shadow will have to break down the walls she built to save them.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_To whom it concerns:_

_Today I write so that those who find this will understand my choices in the event of my death. Please don't blame yourselves if this comes true, it was my choice to give my life to the only reasons why I still walk this earth. Never forget I'll always love you and that would never change even in death, my brothers. To understand why I choice to give my life up tonight for you, let me retell the tale of how our paths crossed that one faithful night. _

_My name is Shadow Hatake Hamato and this is a story about how my life changed when I met four unique individuals that I can proudly call my brothers; Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Along with our father, Splinter, I hope that what I write will give your guys peace of mind that if I were to perish in this battle is that I did it with the mindset that my life is meaningless compared to your lives. I could never again live in the darkness that I once lived in without you guys. Forgive me for my selfish actions but just as I stated before my life is nothing and I am here to protect those I love and care about. _

_Goodbye my one and only family_

* * *

Chapter 1:

~One Year Ago~

It was in the middle of October, the cold chilling wind and the heavy atmosphere didn't help with the bitter chills that flew through my body every time a breeze flew past me. The back alleys of New York were no place for a 13 year old but I had no home, no family and from past experience I knew humans could never be trusted. True I am human also but because of my past and other experiences that are still too traumatic for me to talk about I refuse the help of anyone. Every day is a struggle to survive but I still move forward every day because of the lives I carry on my back. I stopped living for myself a long time ago and started living for the lives that were lost to protect mine. I never understood what made me so special compared to others but still I continue to move forward with the mindset of the other lives I must up hold.

The back alley of Jay's Dogs brings me what little heat I could gather from the store and the scraps of food that jay would throw away from his shop. Just like clockwork Jay would close shop around 10 pm and throw away what he couldn't save at 11:30 pm. The other good thing was Jay was ablovish to the cardboard box that continued to lay next to his dumpster. Sometimes I make myself believe he just turns a blind eye to the kid hiding inside it. But never mind that, after Jay finally leaves do I crawl out of the collapsing cardboard box that I called home and scavenge for what little food is let over. It's never enough but I couldn't complain, I didn't want to live in the system nor did I want to steal for a living. I swore on my parents' bodies that I would live with our family's honor intact and never break the bushido code they instilled in me.

After eating out of the dumpster and trash cans around the block I would sit with my back against the brick wall of Jay's Dogs with a sharp piece of glass in my hand. I could never sleep at night and even in the day if I slept it would be very little. My gray hoodie was covered in my sweat and dirt from every day use. The baggy dark blue jeans that were only held up my some electric cord I found in a dumpster were starting to form holes on my knees. Looking down at my shoe, if you could call them shoes, were held together with duct tape.

I was able to get them from a dumpster from a spoil rich kid that threw them away when they got scuffed. From walking almost everywhere in New York did they start to fall apart. But with no money I could never get them repaired and with police searching for people like me I didn't dare try to move from my spot. When light from police cars would shine into my alleyway I would hide in my "home" and wait until they left. But my "home" was just another reminder that I had nothing, the cardboard box was soaked from every rainstorm that roamed its way into New York, holes started to form from rats chewing at the edges from when I left to get food.

My only companion in all of this was a small white dog that I found one day after returning from scavenging. The small dog was trying to wake up a larger dog that found its way to the alleyway that I was using. Slowing I started walking toward the two dogs, I placed the food I was able to find in my hoodie's pocket and placed my hands in the air. Finally I was able to see that the small dog was nudging the larger dog with its nose, but with my experience on the streets I could tell that the larger dog was dead and it was its mother. Not to startle the smaller dog anymore that it was I announced myself in a low calm voice. The small dog turned around with sad eyes knowing that its mother was gone, I placed my hand out for the small dog to smell and to establish contact. The small dog was at first hesitate but when it started to smell my scent did it start to wag its tail.

I left sorry for the dog because just like me it had no family nor anyone to turn to. Picking up the dog I brought it to my face and just stared at it. My amber eyes and its deep brown eyes just looked at each other, almost like we were communicating with each other we both knew that together we would safe. From that day three months ago I had someone to care about other than myself. I named him Haku because of his white fur that if cleaned would be pure white. I rather go hungry than him so most of the time I gave up my food to him. Haku and I buried him mother in Central Park when no one was around. Looking back at what I did for Haku made me think about how that someday that would be me or at least I would hope so. No one really cares about orphans they only wanted to exploit them because they were like common dirt and couldn't do anything about it. No one can be trusted because its human nature for them to be greedy, distrustful, entitled animals.

But I didn't know that two nights later did my life change but for better or worse, that's the question.

* * *

I lose track of days and time a lot but I believe it was a Friday when I met them. Like usual I was sitting with my back against Jay's Dogs with Haku sleeping in my lap, I had him sleeping inside my hoodie because of the cold wind that was roaring through New York that night. The only heat I could feel was the heat from the sewer grate next to me and the small heat that was radiating from Jay's ovens. But that wouldn't last long, the shard of glass that I held in my hands was starting to cut into my skin very time I picked it up. But it was my only weapon against the New York streets. I pulled my hood up over my head to hide my face and messy black hair and to also shield me as the wind started to get stronger and colder.

It was about after midnight when I hear voices coming from the rooftops, at first I thought I was hearing things but then the clash of metal on metal told me that I wasn't. I looked up to see a mass of black moving around on top of Jay's Dogs. Curiosity got the best of me while I was watching the mass of black moving all around. I picked Haku off my lap and moved him to my neck; still covered by my hoodie him little head poked out while my chin rested on top. With one hand I held Haku's bottom the shard of glass while with my other I used to climb the fire escape to Jay's Dogs. I peeked my head over the ladder to the roof to see something I could never unseen.

From what little I could see there were four turtles with weapons fighting what looked like ninjas with some weird symbol on their chest. They all looked highly skilled but the four turtles looked like they were holding back. With their type of weapons I would have assumed the roof would be covered with blood but all they were doing were knocking out these other ninja with little to no blood shed. But the other ninjas with the weird symbol and outfits wanted nothing but to kill these turtles.

The one with the orange mask was jumping all around with some type of weapon, maybe nunchucks. It looked like he was playing some video game than battling, he had a carefree smile and a childlike laugh as he knocked down ninja after ninja. It made me envious that even with all the blood he must have shed he still had that kind of smile and laugh.

I looked over to the other turtle with the purple mask and his stick. He was good with long range type of attacks and from the way he battle he was calculating every move in his head. It was interesting to watch as he skillfully blocked the incoming ninjas from himself.

Then over to the two other turtles. One wore a red mask with two sais while the other had a blue mask and twin katanas.

_'Hmm, katanas just like me.' _

The one with the red mask attack the other ninjas without mercy nor was care for their lives from what I could see that he just fought to release his rage onto someone other than the ones around him. While the one with the blue mask fought to protect everyone one, trying to spill what little blood that had to be spilt he seemed to hold himself below everyone else. It was just like me, he may value his life but would give it up in an instance for the ones around him.

All of a sudden my vision started to get blurry.

_'Crap don't do this to me now.' _

For some reason when I start to concentrate on something particular for a long period of time my eyes start to hurt and my vision starts to get blurry . The world around me starts to slow down as if I could see the incoming attack in slow-motion giving me time to calculate what to do about. But what made it worst was the fact they would change on me from my normal amber eyes to a gold and even then I would have to shield my face even more with my hood because they wouldn't just turn gold but my iris would turn cat-eye. This happened out in public one time and after people called me a freak and started chasing me did I start to see that I was more and more different than those around me, that I would always be regarded as a freak of nature.

My eyes changed but I could hide them anymore than I could but that didn't stop me from wanting to disappear but something stopped me. I looked back at the turtles as the battle finished but as the ones with the blue, red, and purple turned to gather any weapon they left behind the one in the orange mask started to poke fun at the unconscious ninjas. While the other were busy and the one in the orange mask was in his own little world did one of the ninjas wake up and with the last of his strength he picked up one of his fallen comrades weapons. I took Haku out of my hoodie and placed him of the rooftop. Just as the ninja started to get up I yelled,

"Look out!"

The orange mask turtle turned around to see a sword looming over him. The other turtles turned around just as the blade was coming down on the orange masked turtles. But just as the blade as coming down did I pull the turtle towards me and out of the blades reach, unfortunately I was unable to save myself. The blade came into contact with my left shoulder, slicing in a diagonal way from my shoulder to across my chest.

"ARGGH!"

* * *

I fell on my left side clutching my bleed shoulder. Haku ran over to my side just as the other turtles ran over to the one in the orange mask and myself. I pulled Haku towards my chest as I cover his body with my own. The one in the red mask ran over to the ninja that just attack me and the other turtle and started to stab him with his sais. While the other three ran over to my side to see what happened. I tried to get up but a shooting pain from my shoulder and the blood loss was starting to take its toll on me. From the creak of my hood I could see them but couldn't hear them, I guess I was just going into shock or something. The one in the purple mask tried to touch me but Haku started to bark and growl. The one I saved in the orange mask had tears starting to form in his eyes.

_'Heh, don't waste your tears on the likes of me'_

But the one in the blue mask was trying to not only stop the one with the red mask but to also get Haku to stop barking at them.

In a shushed tone I whispered to Haku

"Easy little guy I think they're the good guys" Haku stopped barking and with a small whimper he looked at the turtles almost like he was trying to get them to help me.

I don't know what happened after that but from what I could piece together was that the four turtles decided it was best for me to go the hospital but when the one in the purple mask exclaimed loudly about my eyes they knew that a hospital would be out of the question so I would have to go back to their place. The one with the red mask, was breathing heavily with blood splatter on his plastron and weapons was against the thought of bringing me to their home but the one in the purple mask said I would die without help and that because I saved the one in the orange mask that I should get a chance. The orange mask one agreed and picked Haku up into his arms but from the looks on their faces it looked like the one in the blue mask was the one to decide it all.

Either way I really didn't care. I blacked out without knowing the answer but from the way they acted I had a small sliver of hope that I could go with them. Because for some reason I wasn't scared at any of them, maybe because we all had something in common or because from what I could read off them was that they all meant good.

* * *

**A.N:**

**This is my first time writing an OC type of story. Just no flames and I hope you like it. If it gets confusing please feel free to tell me. Also this is the only chapter to be told in the OC pov. It would have been too confusing if I didn't the rest will be told in third person so please don't be confused with this little change.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Names' Shadow

Chapter 2:

* * *

Donnie let out another sigh as he look over at the still form that was laying on cot near my work bench. The turtles were out on patrol when we were ambushed by the foot. It was a third time that week and they were all getting annoyed but never the less they fought and won. But as Donnie, Leo, and Raph were gathering their weapons when they heard a shout.

"Look out!"

They all turned to see one of the foot looming over Mikey with a sword in his hands. Leo, Raph, and Donnie rushed over to Mikey but they all knew they weren't going to get there in time but just as the blade was about to come down on Mikey did the person how yelled out pull Mikey away from the sword, but at the cost of their own safety. The blade cut across the persons shoulder and chest causing a large amount of blood to pour out of their body. Donnie's main concern was Mikey and the person who saved him while Raph took his angry out on the foot soldier. Nothing made Raph madder than someone attacking their family or innocent civilians.

Donnie wanted to see the damage on the kid but the dog that probably came with the kid didn't want any of us near. The kid pulled the dog to their chest in a protective manner. Leo and Mikey both tried to get close to the kid but the dog refused any of our help only when the kid pulled the dog closer and whispered into its ear did the dog let its guard down.

With what little medical knowledge Donnie had he told his brothers the best thing we could do was to bring her to the hospital but on closer examination did he see that the kid wasn't human. Gold cat-like eyes stared back at him as he examined the kid for any more injuries, after he told his brothers about his discovery did they agree that a hospital wouldn't work.

Raph didn't want to bring the kid home but without any medical attention the kid was definitely going to die. Raph stated that whoever the kid was might be working with the foot. But Donnie argued that the kid saved Mikey. Both Mikey and Leo agreed with me and with help from Leo we were about to get the kid back the lair. Donnie called April and Casey on their way home to tell them they need help.

When the guys enter the lair did Master Splinter walk out of the shadows and see that we brought home someone did he demanded an answer. Leo handed the kid off to Donnie and entered chambers to talk to Master Splinter about what happened. Raph and Donnie decided to leave Mikey with the dog while they treated the kid. But when they brought the kid into Donnie's lab did they discover not only was the kid a girl but she had been through a lot more than we first thought. Donnie decided to just bandage her shoulder and chest and wait for April to finish the rest.

* * *

That was three hours ago.

After April came out from treating the girl did she gather all of everyone around in the living room. Mikey placed the dog on his lap while me and my brothers sat on the couch and listened to April. Master Splinter stood beside Leo who was standing behind us.

"So what ya find out, April?" Raph asked.

"Is she going to be alright?" Mikey asked with a concern in his voice. Even though we told him not to blame himself we all could see that the weight him what could have happened on the rooftop was weighing heavily on his shoulders.

"From what I can see guys is that she is very malnourish and underweight, she's covered in dirt and has small cuts all in the palms of her hands there are other things on her that I don't think should be taken lightly." April stated.

"What do you mean?" Mikey asked.

April sighed very deeply and continued.

"From everything I could see and determine from taking X-rays is that this kid didn't start off on the streets but was more than likely forced there from someone that was..." April looked away for a moment then returned her gaze back to us.

"Someone has been abusing this kid for years. I think whoever she is escaped from her captors and has been living on the streets ever since. She must not trust humans because of her abuse."

Everyone was silent to this news. The thought of someone hurting someone is bad enough but when it's on a child who can't even protect themselves makes it even worse. Donnie looked over at Raph to see he had a poker face on but if you looked down at his fist you could tell he was from how tightly shut his hands were that he was pissed. Mikey looked down at the little dog that slept on his lap with tears on the verge on spilling out.

"What happens now?" Leo asked.

April shook her head "I don't know. We'll have to see when she wakes up but all I know is that she could have been kidnapped. I found this around her neck when I was cleaning her wounds."

April pulled out a silver locket on a simple chain. She opened it up to show a picture of the kid from when she was younger with two people around her.

"Are those her parents Ms. O'Neil?" Master Splinter asked.

April shook her head.

"I don't know but maybe, she looks happy in this picture and a lot different from it. My guess is that something must have happened to them and that's when she was taken away from them." April closed the locket and placed it on the table, she carefully took out another object from his back pocket and placed it on the table.

"She also had this on her. I think she used it as a weapon to protect herself." April stated. Everyone stared at the locket and the shard of glass that was neatly wrapped in cloth. Small flicks of blood was on one of edges of the glass meaning that not only was that where she was holding the glass but also the small cuts on her palms.

* * *

Everyone turned their attention to Donnie's lab when they heard a low moan. As everyone was getting up did the girl run out of the lab with scalpel in her hands.

The girl's entire torso was cover in bandages, along with both her hands her left arm was completely covered with bandages while her Raph, Donnie, Mikey and Casey went over to the girl; surrounding her in case she tried to hurt herself or them.

"Guys wait don't do that" April exclaimed. Everyone looked at the girl, she was now breathing heavily and her eyes were darting back and forth. Everyone could see that she was having a flashback to whatever happened to her. She took the scalpel in both hands and was about to stab herself when Leo in a flash grabbed the scalpel from her hands, at first she looked surprise but then anger quickly road over the fear.

"Just kill me already! Come on I know you want to, you're all the same after all, I'm just a freak to you so just finish what you started and kill me!" she exclaimed.

Raph, Donnie, Mikey, and Leo looked at each other. They all knew from previous experience what it feels like to be different from everyone.

Leo slowly raised his hands to the girl making sure she saw them before placing them on her shoulders. At first she flinched and closed her eyes but when she slowly opened them did she see all Leo just looking back at her. With shaking hands she slowly placed them on top of Leos'.

"Yakusoku?" She asked, Leo nodded and pointed from his heart to hers. The girl nodded her head and asked,

"What now?"

Leo looked back at his brothers and friends and said,

"Why don't you go back into the room you were just in and wait for us?" She shook her head.

Everyone but Leo didn't understand why the girl didn't want to go back into Donnie's lab. Leo looked into her eyes, the girl's eyes were slightly darting back and forth while the hands that rested upon his own were trembling. Leo could tell that this was part of her trauma.

"I'll right do you want to try my room?" Leo asked.

"Wait Leo I don't-"

Leo raised his hand meaning he wasn't going to budge on this. Leo pointed to the room on the far right.

"That's room mine, you can rest in there for a while." Leo said. The girl nodded her head she stood in front of the ledge to the second floor making everyone wonder what was happening.

"Kid the stairs are ovar there" Raph said with annoyed voice, pointing at the staircase at the other end of the room.

The girl made no sound, all she did was stare at Leo's room. She looked at the two pillars that were side by near Leo's room and with a deep breathe she closed her eyes.

"What the hell is she doing?" Mikey asked.

Just as he finished his sentence everyone watched as the girl ran towards the left pillar. Gathering the speed and power from the run she was able to get scale up the pillar to about 5 feet off the ground then somehow was able to push herself off the pillar on to other. The gap between the two was ten feet. Everyone watched, wide eye as the girl jumped from pillar to pillar until she flipped herself onto the second floor and entered into Leo's room. The door shut with a small bang but echoing into the silence room.

Everyone was both amazed and curious to how this child was able to perform something that no one could do without skills and practice in the martial arts. Donnie speculated that because she wasn't human that's the reason why. But still Master Splinter was adamant that even if she wasn't human they still needed training in order to perform something like that with very little effort. The Hamato family just stared at the door wonder who the kid was.

* * *

While everyone returned to their respective rooms and Casey and April returned home did Leo slightly knocked on his bedroom door.

"Enter"

Leo slowly opened the door to his room to see no light was on nor was the girl on his futon. Looking around as his eyes adjusted to the darkness in his room, he finally found the girl curled up in the corner of the room with her back against the wall. The girl was fidgeting in place almost like she was both ready to attack anyone that came close to her and to run. The small dog that accompanied her entered Leo's room, just as the dog walked into the room that it bolted to the girl. She opened her arms out to the little white dog, the dog's tail was wagging back and forth and licking the girl's face. Her bandaged hands held the dog at bay so that it wouldn't touch her wounded shoulder and chest. Leo watched as the two reunion but jumped when the girl hissed and grabbed her wounded shoulder.

Leo would've normally ran over but he knew in this case that it would lead to disaster so he slowly walked over to the girl with both his hands up to show he didn't have a weapon nor was a threat.

Bending down slowly Leo examined the girl, at first the girl was hesitate but showed little trust in Leo. A small speck of blood was showing through the bandages meaning she pulled a stich, guessing when it was from jumping up to his room Leo was about to go get Don when the girl grabbed his arm. She shook her head saying

"Please don't leave. It's very small and it was stop. Just don't leave me now."

Leo felt the girl's hand trembling on his arm. He bent back down and nodded his head. The girl released Leo's arm and nodded back. Leo sat on the floor in front of the girl while the little white dog trodden into her lap falling asleep instantly. Through it was very faint and quick Leo could see the girl smile, her amber eyes looked kind but behind them he could see sadness and distrust.

* * *

"My name is Hamato Leonardo and I am wondering who the two of you are."

The girl looked up at Leo with a questionable look on her face.

"Do you not have a name?" he asked. The girl shook her head.

"No, it's just…" she took a deep breath "No one has ever asked my name I'm usually called "it" you are the first to actually ask me that, it just surprised me."

'_Why must this world be so cruel that they can't even ask a simple question of someone's name'_ Leo thought.

The girl looked back at Leo when her amber eyes and his hazel met, Leo could see that she was starting to relax a little more.

"My name is Hatake Shadow and this is Haku."

"Shadow that's a nice name so is Haku. Can I assume you named him that because of his fur color?" Leo said jokingly. The girl nodded her head.

"You are of Japanese origin are you not?" Leo asked.

The girl was startled at first but nodded her head. Leo could see that the question made Shadow very uneasy, he didn't want to push it so he left it alone.

"Can you sleep?" Leo asked. Shadow shook her head.

"No, you can never sleep on the streets especially at night"

Leo had a sad look on his face when Shadow explained why she wasn't sleeping. From his experience it's true that sometimes you had to watch your back from day to night.

Even though Leo was tired from patrol and the battle with the foot soldier he stayed awake for most of the night just talking to Shadow about his family and friends and what happened on the rooftop.

"So the one in the red mask is Raphael or Raph then the one that was patching me up and the one helping were Donatello or Donnie and April. The one that I saved was Michelangelo and the one with long blue hair was Casey. So who was the other one, the big rat in the kimono?" Shadow asked.

Leo chuckled, "That's our father and sensei; Splinter. He was a little wiry about bringing you here but after I explained what happened on the rooftop with Mikey and your injury did he comply with allowing you to stay."

Shadow nodded, "I could tell he was watching me closely and so was Raph. I think he doesn't like me."

Leo shook his head, "No he's just being overprotective and on high alert when new people are around. Don't worry about him he'll calm down after a while."

Shadow still looked unsure. Leo yawned and looked to his bed.

"I have a spare futon do you want to sleep on it?" Leo asked. Shadow shook her head

"Sorry but I think I'll stay up, I'm just not use to sleeping at night yet."

Leo could see that she wasn't going to move on this, it would take time but hopefully she would come more out of her shell after some time with them. Leo walked over to his bed, removing all of his gear and placing all of them in his drawer and his weapons on the stand. Leo turned his back to Shadow to see she was still sitting and staring into space.

"Goodnight" Leo said

"Night" Shadow replied.

* * *

**A.N:**

**Yakusoku: promise**


	3. Chapter 3: Little Changes

Chapter 3:

* * *

For the next two weeks, Shadow began living with the Hamato family. Still staying in Leo's room she was finally able to get back into a somewhat normal sleep pattern. At times she would roam the room trying to see if anyone was around to attack. Anytime she woke up Leo would sit up in his bed and motion for her to go back to bed. They would both lay on their sides, facing each other. Leo would then take Shadow's hand and hold it until she fell back to sleep, showing her that someone would always be with her.

While the turtles trained in the dojo during the morning into the afternoon, Shadow just side outside of the dojo's doors and watch the turtles train. April and Casey sometimes dropped by to talk to Shadow while the turtles were busy. At first Shadow would hide in Leo's room and would only talk through the door with them but gradually she would crack the door open until finally they were talking face to face. Though there was a 3 feet gap from where they were standing to her when they talked, everyone was happy about the progress.

It was later that day while the turtles and Splinter were training when Casey and April dropped by with a surprise this time. Casey and April placed the bag on the living room table and watched from a short distance as Shadow slowly walked to it. Peering into the bag Shadow looked at them with a questionable look.

"It's for you and Haku, Shadow. Now go and see if the two of you like them." April said pointing towards Leo's room. Shadow nodded her head, gathering the bag and Haku, Shadow jumped up to the second floor and closed the door quietly.

Shadow placed Haku and the bag on the floor, walking over to the light switch she closed her eyes so that the light change wouldn't be too drastic for her eyes. The room was bathed in a soft light that Leo changed for her when she started to stay in his room. From her past she always stayed in the shadows and that made her eyes not accustomed to the harsh sunlight or lights in the lair. Donnie gave her temporary sunglasses to wear when she roamed the lair until he was able to make something more permeant for her to wear everyday including nights.

Shadow opened the bag onto the spare mattress that she was sleeping to see a bunch of style of clothing. Different styles so that she could pick what she would like. In a smaller bag Shadow saw that April and Casey got Haku a blue collar with little green turtle design across the sides. The tag on the collar was in shape of a human dog tag with his name engraved across it. Shadow smiled at the collar, calling Haku over she gentle adjusted the collar to Haku's size. When the collar clicked together Shadow looked Haku over, smiling she placed Haku back on the ground to sleep. Shadow looked at the mountain of clothes that she had to choose but she knew what she already wanted to look like.

Slowly removing the old hoodie, jeans, cord, and sneakers she always wore she threw them into the rooms trash can.

'_This is goodbye to my old self. Now it's time to move pass my past and focus on what I need to accomplish.' _

Gathering the clothes she wanted to wear she dressed herself slowly so that her injured shoulder won't hurt as much and the stitching won't pull out again. Shadow walked to the mirror to see what she looked like.

* * *

Shadow was now wearing a black t-shirt with a red dragon on the front and red trim on the sleeves, collar, and bottom of the shirt. A long with the shirt was a dark blue jacket with two pockets for her hands another pocket on the left side of her chest. Dark blue jeans that fell loosely against her body that were being held up by a black belt with a sliver buckle. Black socks with black shoes that had red laces and trim running all across the shoes.

Finally to help hide the cuts on her hands that have yet to heal, Casey left a note with some fingerless gloves in the bag saying that if he thought they looked badass and would make her look tougher. They were black gloves with red trim where the finger and wrist enter and exited and silver buttons road across the knuckles. Two pairs black diamond earrings were in her ears along with the locket that April found on her the first day they met was now hidden under her shirt, no one had asked them about the locket which helped but she knew they wanted to know but didn't want to push it.

Shadow pushed her now clean long black hair back behind her ears, a small part of the left side of her hair was left down to cover her face while she pulled the rest into a loose ponytail that fell to the middle of her back. Shadow picked up her temporary sunglasses that where tinted black with a slick black frame over her eyes.

Shadow gathered all the other clothes and placed them back into the bag she walked up to the doors and was about to leave when she heard the sound of the turtles coming out from the dojo. Pressing her ear to the door she listened to noise outside of the room.

* * *

"Hey Case watcha doin' standin' there." Raph yelled out.

"Raph we're waiting for Shadow. We got her some clothes to wear and we're waiting to see what she picks." April stated.

"Yea, and I got her something ta make her look badass and tough." Casey said with a chuckle.

"Oww, watcha do that for"

"Arnold Casey Jones what did you give Shadow." April demanded.

"Nothin' bad let's just see if she even wants ta wear them before ya beat me ta pulp."

"I think that waiting for her might scare her back into the room guys." Don said.

"I agree with Don let's just go about our routines and look at her if she says it's alright." Leo said.

"I'm going to grab the camera." Mikey said

"Mikey don't. Who knows what that could do." Donnie yelled.

"But-"

"Michelangelo do as your brother as asked you." Splinter stated.

"Ugh, fine sensei." Mikey said in a huff.

Shadow chuckled at the amusing conversations that they had.

'_Maybe I could be like that one day.'_

Shadow stepped back and took a deep breath, pushing opened the doors she looked out to see everyone was still gathered by the living room staring at Leo's door. Shadow jumped down from the ledge and walked over to everyone.

"How do I look?" Shadow asked.

At first everyone eyed her in silence but nodded in agreement that she looked great, Casey was happier over the gloves she was wearing stating that he had great fashion. April and Raph rolled their eyes at that statement. But that wasn't the end of things for Shadow, everyone including Splinter agreed it was time for Shadow to get out of Leo's room and into her own. Lucky for them there was a spare room beside Leo that they used for storage that she could live in.

* * *

But getting Shadow to leave would be the hard part but thanks to Don and April's computer skills they got Shadow leave for the next two weeks to get an education and riding lessons. It took some convincing by everyone but Shadow agreed with the mindset it would get everyone off her back. Shadow would be staying at April's apartment while she took an IQ test to see where she belonged then online courses in that standing.

Then Casey would take her for riding lessons, everyone knew she was underage to get a license to legally drive but Shadow stated that she would only ride at night and with the guys, plus taking all of those test just to prove she was street legal annoyed her and being in the system didn't help with no birth certificate. So Shadow chose Casey to teach her how to ride a motorcycle rather than a car because she didn't like being enclosed places.

For the next two weeks Shadow lived at Aprils' while during the day Shadow stayed glued to a computer screen only leaving to the bathroom and to eat and sleep. April was amazed by the score she got on the IQ test.

"Wow Shadow I knew you were smart because of all the talk you have with Donnie and I about his inventions but I didn't think this." April said the first day Shadow started living with her.

"Read a lot of books while staying with the guys plus the library is a good place to stay at during the winter. There are a lot of places to hide in when the lights go out but nothing to do but read." Shadow said.

April peered at the screen to see the score, 187 but what amazed her more was that she found out that Shadow could read over 10,000 words a minute and had an eidetic memory. But anytime April brought it up did Shadow shut down and just block out any of April's attempts of contact. All Shadow would do was work on her online courses and go riding with Casey.

Nights with Casey would free her from the computer screen that was causing her headaches to get worse. Casey would take her out to abandon air strip to teach her all about riding a motorcycle. Casey was about to rig up a smaller version of the shell cycle with Raph so that Shadow could practice on. Shadow and Casey rode from dusk till dawn, sometimes Casey caught Shadow laughing and smiling when she rode with him. The time spent with Casey and April had Shadow break more and more of her walls down.

At the end of her stay Shadow was able to get a college degree in both biochemistry and medicine she said she wanted to be able to help the guys out when they got injured. April said that Shadow could continue with her education even after she left. Shadow nodded and said she would think about it, Shadow was leaving back to the lair after she dismantled the bike she rode with Casey. Shadow said he wanted to build her bike from scratch now that she had an idea of riding, she even sketched out a design in her notebook that she gave to Casey to hold on. The detail on the bike caught Casey's attention saying that it was as if the drawing was real.

April and Casey saw Shadow off as she made her way back to the lair through the sewers. It was about a twenty minute walk back to the lair but she didn't mind, it helped her clear her mind especially after being away for so long. Shadow had to leave Haku with the turtles and Splinter because April's apartment didn't allow animals.

Carefully Shadow entered the passcode to the lair. The doors opened slowly to the dim light lair, Shadow thanked the guys for the light change.

"Come on Shadow we got a surprise for you." Mikey exclaimed the moment Shadow walked through the door.

Shadow cocked her head to the side and looked at the guys with a questionable look on her face.

"What did you do?" Shadow asked.

"Come on kid it's better ta show than ta tell plus its easier this way." Raph stated grabbing Shadow's shoulder, Raph pulled her close to him and started walking with everyone up the stairs to the room next to Leos'.

"Isn't this the storage room?" Shadow asked. The doors to the storage room were different from before. At first the doors were just some boards the guys found and nailed against the wall but now they were replaced with cherry oak doors that were stain black with a matching red dragon painted across it.

"Thought you would like the design, since it matches the shirt you always wear." Leo said. Shadow stared at the door with wide eyes.

"Is this for me?" Shadow asked.

The guys nodded.

"Well you are a part of our family and need a place to stay other than Leo's now." Don said.

Raph gave Shadow a light push towards the doors saying,

"We'll be downstairs when ya finish."

Everyone jumped down from the second floor and made their way to the dojo. Mikey jumped down and gave Shadow a wink and a thumbs up. Shadow smiled and turned her attention back to the room. Turning the knobs slowly Shadow pushed the doors to the room open, feeling for the light switch that was near the door Shadow turned the lights on and gasped at the room. It may have been dimly lit but everything still visible to her.

* * *

The room was setup in a basic Japanese style. A bed with a cherry oak bed frame was placed right against the wall in the left corner of the room with a full size mattress that was covered with a black comforter with red on the edge of the comforter with Japanese writing down middle in gold saying Hamato in kanji. The pillows had the same design and color as the comforter. The bushido code was carefully written with in black paint in kanji above the bed. A cherry oak nightstand was to the right side of the bed with a lantern design lamp that had a very low glow with an alarm clock beside it. The lantern lamp was tall rectangular shape with a black dragon on each side with a red background and black painted wood supporting it.

A few feet from the nightstand stood a cherry oak bookcase with all kinds of material arts book; some were in Japanese, Chinese, and English. Along with some from Leo's collection on war and battle strategies, Donnie brought some medical and scientific books by April's request after seeing what Shadow was learning. Raph even put a few of the books he had on the shelf; fighting and motorcycle books, while Mikey put a few of his comic books in there probably saying that it was too educational. A small black two seated couch was against the right side of the room with a spare red blanket laying across the top.

A cherry oak desk and chair were pushed against the left side of the door with a laptop and lamp with the same design and style as the one by her bedside on top. The laptop was red with Hamato Shadow written in black on the top in kanji. When open the laptop had black trim on the top and base, the keys were also black with white on each of the keys to represent the letters and numbers.

On the right side of the door was a cherry oak dresser with clothes of the same style as Shadow would normally wear from April and Casey in them. Nakama in kanji was written on the top draw in bright golden color and Hato on the bottom. On top was a shell cell that Donnie made with everyone's numbers already programed in, while everyone's was green Donnie went the colors that Shadow usually wore. Black shelled with red in between where the scales connected, along with inside buttons the screen was also dark grey. Shadow quickly went through the shell cell's contacts before placing in her left front pocket.

An area rug was placed in the middle of the room; black with red trim and in the middle were the guys' names written in gold kanji with Shadows' in the middle of theirs. Haku had a small dog bed that was press against the base of the bed. It was a red on the outside with black trim and small black paw print design on the sides and Haku's name was stitched on the backside in black.

Looking around the room Shadow could see that she was starting to become more and more accustomed to the Hamato family and even the word that would make her cringe; family. Shadow decided that it was time to really change for the guys, her past was her own but maybe with the help of the Hamato family along with the two human she could call friends, Casey and April she could get over the hurdles and start to have a normal life once again. Shadow turned towards the doors of her room, touching the door knobs slightly she made her resolution.

* * *

_'It's time'_

Shadow pushed the doors open to the dimly light lair with reason to live other than her dog and the others that gave their lives for her. Shadow was now living for her family and friends along for herself.


	4. Chapter 4: Forge the New Path

Chapter 4:

* * *

For the next six months Shadow lived with the Hamato family, growing into her own person. At times she did have bad days but with the support of her family and friends around her, she wasn't scare anymore. Shadow even showed them one more thing she was able to do differently than other humans that she was scare to show them due to her past trauma. It was a few days after the guys surprised her with her own room that she decided to join the guys in ninjutsu training. Shadow walked in the dojo one day after breakfast wearing a loosely fitting dusty grey tank top with loose fitting black pants with grey hand wraps. Shadow pulled all her hair into a tight ponytail that fell onto the middle of her back. The rooms light were low enough that Shadow didn't have to wear her glasses but she did take them with her encase her head started hurting later on.

"Can I join you guys today" Shadow asked. The guys nodded in agreement while Splinter motioned for Shadow to fit between Leo and Raph.

Everyone went through the same routine with warmup stretches and mediation for the first hour and half. Everyone including Splinter were impressed that Shadow was able to keep up with every despite no previous training nor knowledge that they knew of. Moving onto kantas; only Leo who practiced all the time and Shadow were able to continue perform them to the end while the others had to watch at the other side of the room. The type of skill and grace that was required to perform even the simples of kantas memorizes Raph, Don, and Mikey as they watch both Leo and Shadow copy each of Splinters moves perfectly until the last one.

Shadow and Leo both bowed at Splinter then looked at each other, Shadow had a small bead of sweat forming on her brow and was breathing a little heavier than before but she looked like she was enjoying herself. Then everyone moved onto sparring, but because Shadow still had an injured shoulder she had to sit out with Splinter.

Once the sparring between the brothers from hand-to-hand combat to weapons Shadow's eyes started to change from amber to gold and cat eyed. At the beginning Shadow would do anything to stop them from changing but now, she saw them more as a gift than a curse. Slowing down the speed of the turtle's movements helped Shadow train her mind and reflexes so that when she could train with them she could all of them increase their skills.

It was after training when Shadow revealed more of what made her different.

* * *

Everyone stepped out of the dojo covered in sweat and heavy breathing but that didn't stop Raph and Mikey from arguing with each other over the littlest of things. Leo and Don wanted to leave them to deal with it themselves but knowing both of them they guessed it might get too heated. Shadow stood with Leo and Donnie while Raph chased Mike around the lair, but what no noticed was the small crack at the top of the lair growing and getting weaker. Raph was able to corner Mikey and throw him over his shoulder towards Leo, Donnie and Shadow.

Just as Mikey landed on the ground did everyone look up to the small rocks that fell onto Mike's plastron but it was too late to move Mikey as a few rocks started to fall from the crack in the ceiling. The rocks weren't large enough to kill Mikey but if they fell on him he would be seriously injured.

"MIKEY" Everyone cried out.

Everything slowed down for Shadow, taking a deep breathe she planted both feet firmly on the ground. Raising her hands in the air Shadow closed her eyes and focused her mind on the falling rocks and Mikey. The lair started to shake slightly but just as the rocks were about to fall onto Mikey they just stop. Mikey opened his eyes to see the rocks that were about to crush him were just floating above his head. Raph, Leo, and Donnie pulled Mikey out from under the rocks. They looked over to see how they were stopped only for Shadow to catch their eyes.

"Is he alright?" Shadow asked while grinding her teeth together.

"Yeah he's good. Umm Shadow what are-"

Donnie was unable to finish as they watched Shadow close both of her hands into a fist, lowering her left arm to the ground first Shadow then then arched her body and left arm to the ground. The rocks that were about to fall onto Mikey were know flying back to where they fell from. Shadow then closed her right fist taking a deep breath as she exhaled and raised her right fist into the air did flames fly out.

The rocks were know scorched and with little time until the bond between the rocks broke once again Shadow gather some of the ponds water into a ball and flung it up to the scorched rocks; sealing the bond between the rocks and their base so that they wouldn't come loose again. As a last patch to the ceiling Shadow blew a strong current towards the rocks so that the rocks were now cool off and the bond won't break unless forced to by an incredible strong force.

Shadow looked at the guys who were wide eyed and shocked. Shadow looked at what she did and was about to run and hide in her room when Mikey jumped out from his brother's grasp saying,

"That was so cool. You gotta do that again." Shadow was shocked at what Mikey was saying.

"Don't you think that was weird? Too strange and different for you guys?" Shadow asked in a low voice.

The guys shook their heads.

"Hell no kid, just amazed us ta silence that's all." Raph said joining Mikey in his excitement.

"Yeah, do something else." Mikey said.

Shadow nodded her head, walking over to the guys she placed her right arm out to her side. As she was walking over to the turtles did some of the water from the pond trail beside her.

"I didn't say this earlier Donnie but I could've healed by shoulder a long time ago." Shadow said smirking at Donnie.

"What do you mean?" Don asked. Donnie got his answer as he witnessed Shadow taking the water from the pond and first cleaning it of any dirt with her left hand. Placing the dirt back into the pond she took the now clean water into a ball and placed it against her left shoulder. While her hand moved slightly across her wound shoulder the guys watched as a small light from the ball glowed through. Then just as the light started to glow too bright for their eyes that the ball disappear into her body.

"See." Shadow said pulling the corner of her collar off her injured shoulder. Donnie looked closely at her shoulder to see that there was no more stitches or even a scar from the attack that placed her in their care.

"I never showed you guys because I thought it would make you guys fear me. I know that you guys are my family but I still have thoughts like that in the back of my mind that you guys would abandon me because of what I am." Shadow stated looking down at the ground. Donnie looked over to his brothers for some support.

* * *

Leo was the first to speak while placing his hand on Shadow's now healed shoulder.

"Never think that imooto we're now family and that means we stay together no matter what, right guys?"

"Hell yea, kid yer gifts or powers make ya cooler than what we originally thought. I mean we all thought yer col but this just pushes everythin' out the window and makes it even better." Raph stated.

"You're like one of my comic books so that makes you like number one in my book" Mikey added.

"People just don't things that are different that probably why they fear people like you and us but no matter our differences we are family and we will always stand together." Don said.

From that day Shadow stopped hiding who she was. After tell their friends and Splinter about Shadow did life for her start to become more and more enjoyable.

* * *

Leo helped Shadow customize her own weapons for battle. After discussing with Splinter about what weapons she would use in battle they decided to go with the katana but instead of having two she was allowed to have three. Two long range and one shorter blade that could match Shadow's speed and precision. Leo and Shadow worked on forging the blades in the garage after dinner. Each katana had Hamato clan symbol and name in kanji craved into the black scabbard while the handles was black with red typed mixed in to the middle creating a wave pattern. Each handle was designed differently so that Shadow could tell which blade was which.

The guards on the two long ranger swords were silver and the short range was gold. When the swords were unsheathed the blades were made of high grade stainless steel each with a design on them. Leo worked on the design that Shadow called her favorite. It was one of her long range swords with a dragon about three inches big from with its tail beginning at the guard to the tip of the blade. The other long range blade had a tiger appearing to leap off the blade to attack. The short range blade was last; both Shadow and Leo worked on this one. The design of the blade had the phoenix soaring though the sky with little clouds surrounding it.

* * *

While during the night Shadow worked with Leo, Raph had Shadow's attention during the afternoon and nights after Leo and Shadow finished her swords. During that time they worked on making a shell cycle out of parts Raph and Casey were able to get from some of Casey's old bikes and the junkyard. The construction of the bike was going to take most of their time due to the fact they were building a working bike from scratch and combined with other commitments and time Shadow's bike was taking longer than expected but that didn't discourage either one of them.

In fact they enjoyed the time together; Raph and Shadow discovered they had a lot in common from fight techniques and forms to shows on the television about wrestling and motorbike races. It was about mid-December when Raph and Shadow finish the motorcycle and nothing felt better than the fact they both felt closer than ever to each other. The motorcycle had the same design as Raph's but the color was black with gold trim. The handles were black with red stripes all across, Raph even used the scraps of metal they didn't use and extended the left side of the bike so that Shadow could have somewhere to hid her swords in public and to use them encase of danger. The holder was designed to look like it was to be used for a sidecar with a dragon flying in the sky engraved in the metal.

* * *

While Raph and Leo took up most of Shadow's time with their little projects Mikey found time to hang out with her when they cooked for everyone. Mikey's skills were just at beginner but with Shadow's help they were able to use a lot more of the leftovers of meals and scraps to create more nutritional and better tasting meals. The time spent in the kitchen and at times comic book comparisons made Shadow's heart feel lighter and lighter. _'The Michelangelo affect'_ was what Shadow would call it. Though at times Mikey did get on her nerves Shadow gladly received help from Raph to show Mikey the error of his ways.

* * *

Shadow and Donnie worked on some armor during the morning for when they went on patrol together and the glasses for Shadow to wear were near completion. Donnie was able to make them just like the ones' she was use to but now the lenses not only stop light from coming in but also at night they could switch between night vision and thermal vision via a switch and senor on the side of the frames. It was at the end of December when Shadow and Donnie finished customizing her armor. Even though Donnie and Shadow were the ones that built the armor from scratch everyone took a part in designing each and every component. With the completion of the armor did Donnie call everyone outside his lab to get their reactions of when Shadow stepped out for the first time in her armor.

The door to the lab creaked open just as everyone quieted down and watched as Shadow stepped out in her full body armor. Shadow decided to stay with Japanese influences and had her armor designed to a kunoichi.

* * *

Shadow first wore forming black sleeveless turtle neck and pants with black fingerless gloves that extended from her wrist to her elbow. On top was the armor that they both cared and worked day after day on. All the metal armor was made of titanium due to its lightweight and ease for Shadow to move in without trouble. The chest plate had chain mail wielded inside for extra protection.

The chest plate was attached by two straps of Velcro that connected the back and front while soften, more flexible metal was used to help connect the sides of the plates. Both arm covers were made of titanium that protected the back of Shadow's hands, connected by Velcro at the wrist and below the elbow. Long with covers for her legs that covered from the top of Shadow's knees to the bottom of her shins, little room was left for her black boots that were laced with dark grey laces. Don reinforced Shadow's boots steel on the tops, when Shadow asked Don gave no reply but she guessed it was him being overprotective of her entering battle. All the metal was coated to a smoky grey color while the straps were light black.

On Shadow's waist held up by a dark grey leather belt with matching two holders. Since Shadow was left handed her swords would be primary held on the right side of her body. On her left side held a small dark grey leather case; falling mid-level on her thigh that held kunai knives. Behind her was another small dark grey leather case that held some medical supplies and a steel container that housed some water for Shadow to use encase of emergencies.

* * *

Each of the armor was designed by Shadow's brothers. Leo took control of Shadow's chest plate, the back had the Hamato clan symbol carved into the back then painted in with black to make it more eligible. A dragon and phoenix that at first had their tails circled the Hamato clan symbol with the dragon on the bottom and phoenix on top then moved across to the back to her front chest plate. The dragon moved from the bottom left corner to the middle while the phoenix entered from the top right corner to the middle, in midair about to clash at each other.

Raph handled her arm covers and had a flame design cover portion of metal that covered just form her wrist to her elbow, leaving the back of her hands portion with Hamato in kanji engraved and painted black on top. Mikey left the design on her legs simple and focused on the leather bags on her thigh and on her belt, Mikey thought all the designs made the armor too masculine for Shadow so he carved into the leather two cherry blossoms from the bottom to the top of the case on her leg and sewed with the help of April a lucky charm with the word "protection" translated into Japanese and written in kanji into the back lining of the bag. Donnie didn't add anything since he had a hand in from day one with Shadow and her armor.

All that was left was the gift from Splinter, Casey and April. They were able to create a mask to cover from where the bottom of the glasses fell all across the bottom of her face. The mask helped filter out foreign bodies and anything toxic that could enter her system. It was made of flexible titanium that was painted dark grey, connecting ear to ear and with a switch would come apart in the middle and fall back behind her ears. April design them to look like head phones so that Shadow didn't have to constantly remove them all she had to do was touch the back side of one of her ears for the mask to extend back out and connect to her face. Under the metal was a plastic filter system that was completely self-efficient primarily working off Shadow's ability to work with air. When the mask is activated all Shadow had to do was to touch the middle of the mask, activating a micro sensor built into the mask and breathe out a strong current of air so the filters could be activated.

* * *

Everyone knew the moment that Shadow stepped out with her hair tied up into a tight ponytail, glasses, mask and swords that she was a warrior.


	5. Chapter 5: Forgotten Past

Chapter 5:

* * *

Later that night Shadow and her brothers decided to take out her new armor out for a test. There were plenty of Purple Dragons and Foot soldiers to find and teach them a lesson. For most of the night, Shadow, the turtles, and Casey travelled all across Manhattan jumping from rooftop to rooftop even throwing in a game of ninja tag which Casey lost in 5 minutes. Laughter traveled through the sewer tunnels as everyone made their way back to the lair.

"That was so cool. Shadow that move you did when Raph was about to tag you was sweet, you need to show me how to do it." Mikey exclaimed slapping Shadow lightly on the back. Shadow and Mikey were the only ones that couldn't be caught ending in a draw.

"Mikey, that move was something you guys practice all the time I just had more power and high than you. I can show you but it will take practice and you actually listening to someone for more than 5 seconds." Shadow said with a chuckle. While Mikey started pouting everyone broke out in laughter.

"Hey Shadow I forgot to ask how were the glasses?" Donnie asked calming himself down.

"Yeah at times I was concern that you couldn't see." Leo added.

Shadow shook her head, "No, they were fine I could see a lot better than I normally would. I really am indebted to you Donnie for giving me my sight back."

Donnie shook his head, "Shadow don't worry about it. I would've done the same thing for anyone in your situation."

Raph snaked his arm around Shadow's shoulders saying, "Yeah kiddo and next time you and me need to go riding so you better help me shake them."

Shadow laughed at that statement while Mikey started throwing a fit about Raph taking Shadow all to himself.

All the way to the lair everyone was in high spirits. Just as they made it back to the lair doors did Shadow stop and stare at the sewer water that was passing by.

"Something wrong Shadow?" Leo asked.

"I don't know." Shadow stated. Shadow walked closer to edge and bent down. No one knew what was going on but they stood there waiting for Shadow's answer.

"I guess I'm just imagining things." Shadow said with a shrug, turning her back to the water. As Shadow was about to get up a shadowy figure shot up from the water and pulled her in.

"SHADOW!" Everyone exclaimed. Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey didn't wait a second and jumped into the water. In the water they could see Shadow was being pulled down by three figures dressed in all black with oxygen tanks strapped to their backs. Shadow had her mask on but she was still struggling to breathe as one of the figures snaked their arm around her neck and was squeezing it tight.

Raph and Leo jump into action and went after the shadowy figures after their sister while Mikey and Donnie battled the other figures that were surrounding them. Casey finally jumped in when he was able to find the oxygen mask Donnie built for him.

Leo and Raph pulled the shadowy figures off Shadow and started to battle with them. They tried to get Shadow to leave but she refused stating,

"I'm not leaving you guys alone! This is our fight and I'm not abandoning my family!"

Everyone could see that Shadow was not going to budge on the issue.

The battle raged on with neither side budging. While each turtle went to take a breath of air Shadow and Casey covered their backs.

When it looked like the battle was never going to end did one of the soldiers shout

"We've made our point, she knows now."

The soldier started to make their escape but not without Raph ripping off a logo on one of the uniforms.

* * *

Everyone swam back to the top taking in many deep breathes. Shadow shut her eyes and took off her glasses. Donnie looked over to Shadow and took out her temporary glass and handed them to her. Shadow nodded her head and placed them over her eyes. Shadow looked at the glasses that were now in need of repair. Raph looked at the logo he ripped off and handed to Donnie asking,

"Have you seen anything like this Don?"

Donnie shook his head, "No any of you?"

Everyone shook their head except for Shadow. Shadow was breathing heavily and started to back away slowly from it. Donnie quickly hid it in his bag, Leo step forwards towards Shadow trying to get her to calm down. Even with her glass on they could tell her eyes were darting back and forth.

When Leo placed his hand on Shadow's shoulder she yelped out in fear and started to try and run away shouting,

"No, no, no! Stay away, stay away from me!" Everyone could see Shadow was freaking out and having a flashback. Leo and Raph held her arms and legs so that she couldn't hurt herself or any of them while Mikey held her head since she was started to bash it into the concrete floor when her legs and arms were pinned.

"Shadow its us, your brothers no one is here to hurt you!" Leo shouted.

But Shadow wasn't listen she continued to struggle as tears started to leak out from the corner of her eyes.

"You lie! You always lie! Never trust them, never trust a human!" Shadow shouted by now Splinter and April came running out of the lair when they hear Shadow shouting.

"What has happened, my sons?" Splinter asked.

"Shadow's having a flashback and we can't get her out of it." Donnie stated.

Splinter walked over to Shadow slowly bending down Splinter removed the glasses that were covering Shadows eyes relieving, they weren't their normal amber color while her left eye was cat eye and gold her right eye was completely blood red. Shadow glared at Splinter as she continued to struggle under the weight of her brothers. Splinter stared in Shadow's eyes and said,

"My sons, we need to break her out of her trance because I fear something bad is about to happen."

"What do you mean sensei?" Leo asked. Splinter pointed at Shadow's eyes once again. Shadow's one gold eye was starting to be taken over and changing to blood red.

"Master what can we do? We need to help her!" Mikey pleaded. April bent down beside Splinter and pulled the locket around Shadow's neck off and held it in front of her.

"Shadow I need you to focus, remember who you are, not who you are told you were. We need you to be you don't let whoever did this to you to win. I know you are a survivor show me that strength you have. Don't cling to those memory your trying to suppress, look at this locket remember those memory of your parents the memories you cherish."

Shadow struggled trying to look away from the locket but Mikey held her head firmly, trying to get her to look. The locket shined brightly in the dim sewer tunnel. Shadow stared at the locket for a while, her eyes started to revert back to gold then her normal amber color. Finally becoming still. When it looked like Shadow had fallen asleep did everyone back off and release her. April stared at the locket in her hands

"This little thing really is the only thing that can keep her sane." April muttered.

* * *

The locket started to glow brightly in the tunnel forcing everyone to cover their eyes. When everyone uncovered their eyes they saw that they weren't in the sewer tunnel anymore and Shadow was no were to be seen.

Looking around they could see they were surrounded by snow on top of a hill two meters away from an old house that was on the verge of collapsing, down the hill was a small village that was just nestling into the night.

"What the hell is going on?" Raph shouted.

"I do not know my son." Splinter stated. Everyone turned around when they hear the sound of a child laughing coming closer to them.

A little girl around the age of five with her hair loosely pulled into a ponytail with rags sowed into clothing and dirt on her cheeks came running from the house and started running around in the snow. At first everyone wanted to run and hid but they saw that they were going unnoticed. What also surprised everyone was the fact Shadow's eyes were grey not amber.

"My sons, I believe we are somehow looking into Shadow's past. This must be the village she grew up in." Splinter said. Everyone watched in silence as Shadow was running around in the snow. Two figures merged from the house, one man with silver hair that was short on the top and pulled into a ponytail in the back, he had grey eyes and a scar that ran across his right cheek. The man had a light long white shirt with a tattered black vest and pants. The women hand long black hair and hazel eyes, she was wearing a dirty grey dress that fell loosely against the women's body.

"Be careful Shadow." The woman shouted.

"Oh come on Yuri let her have some fun today, she had a lot of training this week and besides I know you're having fun watching her smiling" the man said placing his arm around the woman's shoulder and pulling her closer.

"Maybe but still she needs to be careful, Sado" Yuri said. Sado shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch Shadow playing in the snow.

"Mommy, Daddy look at what I can do." Shadow exclaimed loudly. Raising her hands in the air Shadow started to manipulate the snow in the ground and moving it around into wave like patterns.

"That's nice Shadow just be careful not to make it too big." Yuri stated. Shadow nodded her head and placed the snow back on the ground.

"Hey daddy can we go back to training I want to get better at the long range." Shadow said looking at Sado.

Sado looked at Yuri looking for an answer, Yuri shrugged her shoulders and handed Sado a kunai that she was hiding by the door. Sado grinned ear to ear and ran over to Shadow.

"Let's show mommy what you have learned now." Sado said handing Shadow the kunai and grabbing his own that was hidden on his waist.

Shadow and Sado stood 2 meters away from each other, Shadow placed the kunai in her left hand with the blade behind her while Sado held his in his right hand with the point of the blade pointing towards Shadow.

"Let's go Shadow" Sado shouted running towards Shadow.

"Yeah" Shadow said running towards Sado.

The clash of the metal on metal of the kunai blades were the only thing that could be seen and hear. Sado and Shadow battled each other as if their lives depended on it, though Sado was going a little easy on Shadow both Sado and Yuri knew that Shadow was talented but if they let off too much then Shadow would unintentionally hurt someone. They were training Shadow in the ways of controlling her powers and ninjutsu.

The Hamato family, Casey and April watched as Sado and Shadow for what felt like an eternity, but what truly amazed them was the laughter and smile coming from Shadow. For the Shadow of their time may have laughed and smiled but they were always clouds of darkness and sadness behind them. But what they saw next showed why Shadow changed from who was then to who she was now.

* * *

Sado and Shadow walked back to Yuri with Shadow sitting on Sado shoulders, they were both breathing heavily but still smiling and laughing about what would happen tomorrow. Just as Sado and Shadow made it back to Yuri did the house behind them explode. Yuri was pushed towards Sado and Shadow falling and rolling away from the house while Sado and Shadow also flew from the blast, Sado grabbed and covered Shadow as they all flew away from the house.

Everyone looked towards the forest where another blast came flying at Sado, Shadow, and Yuri. But this thing they were ready, Sado and Yuri used their powers to control the elements and used the snow and earth under them and raised them like a shield to protect themselves. Bullets and shadowy figures emerged from the forest and started firing upon the unarmed family.

"Yuri get Shadow out of here!" Sado cried, pushing the shield towards the forest. Yuri tried to get up but a sharp pain from her leg forced her back on the ground. As Yuri tried to get back up did she noticed the blood pool under her chest, Yuri felt around towards her back to feel a piece of wood was stuck in her back and when she went to remove it Yuri could see that no matter what she did; it would be fatal.

Yuri looked over to Shadow and Sado as they continued to hold up the shield, with tears in her eyes she pulled off the locket around her neck and held it tightly in her right hand and with her left she focused what little power she had and forced the wooden piece out of her back.

"MOMMY!" Shadow cried.

"YURI!" Sado added running towards his injured wife. Sado grabbed Shadow and with little time Sado created an earth dome around himself, Shadow, and Yuri and pushed themselves under ground.

* * *

The Hamato family, April and Casey were transported to where the Hatake's were hiding. Sado was holding his wife in his arms as Shadow hid behind him. The rumbling from above as the people who were attacking them tried to get to them underground.

"Mommy?" Shadow said in a whisper.

Yuri raised her hands towards Sado and Shadow placing both of their hands together with hers.

"Shadow, my little girl it's time for you to receive two gifts that your father and I have been waiting until you were ready for. The gift of the phoenix of the eternal flame from me and the two dragons; Timaeus and Saphira, the guardians of the Orichalcos Seal. Please take this my child and remember I will always be watching over you and your father."

Yuri with the last of her strength focused everything she had into a flame that once removed from herself glowed in a small phoenix and then back into the flame. Yuri placed the flame into Shadow's chest and the locket into Sado's hands.

"G-goodbye my l-love, I pray we don't meet u-until you are o-old and grey. Shadow l-look a-after your f-father for me." Yuri looked at her husband and daughter for the last time as her vision started to blur and darken.

"I..l-love…y-you with all…m-my heart"

Yuri's hand fell to her side as she gave up her last breath and words to her husband and daughter.

Tears flowed off Shadow's face and onto her mother's body, Sado held Shadow closely with his right arm and buried her face into the crook of his neck and with his left hand he clutch Yuri's locket. Sado pulled Shadow's face away from the crook of his neck and stared at her saying,

* * *

"Shadow listen to me now, you will run away from here and will not turn back. I will hold them off as long as I can but you need to get out of here." Shadow shook her head.

"Shadow, look at me. I love you so much it hurts, your mother and I love you will all our hearts and now I need you to go. Take the locket that your mother has left as a reminder that you are always love. Never take it off and never give up on who you are." Sado said placing the locket around Shadow's neck.

Shadow looked at the locket around her neck then back at her father.

"I give you everything." Sado said kissing Shadow's forehead. Light shined off of the area where Sado kissed Shadow, Shadow's eyes changed from amber to blue at the top and green at the bottom, they both then mixed in the middle. As her eyes changed color the seal of the Orichalcos over her eyes entirely.

Sado smiled sadly at Shadow as he knew it would be his last time. Sado touched the locket around Shadow's neck marking it with the Hatake clan seal.

Sado stepped away from Shadow and gathered his wife in his arms. Shadow stood at his side as he raised them back to the surface.

"Now Shadow run!" Sado focused his power to control the earth and air and created a tunnel of rocks around them. Shadow started to run away but then three shadowy figures ran towards her. Shadow battle them just as she battle her father and was able to defeat them but when she turned around to see her father did everything change.

Sado had taken a bullet to his chest. Shadow ran over to her father as he fell to the ground. Shadow pulled her father into her arms as blood started to pour out of body and onto the snowy ground.

"Daddy?" Shadow whispered.

* * *

Sado could tell that he was at his end, he felt no pain but while his vision blurred and darken he was able to raise his hands and hold Shadow's face. Sado smiled sadly at Shadow saying in a horsed voice

"Just like your mother…I will always be with you. Remember this and take…. what little I can still give you. Your mother and I told you that there were only the powers of fire, water, air, and earth but…. there is one more that I must bare onto you. The power of lightening is a powerful tool that you must only use under one condition; never use it to protect your life but the lives you have sworn to love and protect. Take this Shadow…. and find yourself new people that you can call family." Sado's eyes changed from grey to gold cat eye, as the power from Sado flowed into Shadow did her eyes once again change.

"With this you will be able to understand the world in a different away. My little dove I am deeply sorry for this but I-I….l-love-e…y-you" Sado's eyes closed as the last of his power flowed into Shadow, his hands fell to his sides as Shadow's eyes reverted back to normal. Shadow shook her father's body trying to wake him up but nothing worked.

Shadow grabbed her head with both hands and cried out in anguish. The earth around her started to crumble as the air too started to whip around her and the figures that now forced her to become an orphan. Shadow's eyes weren't grey, gold, nor blueish green they were blood red as tear flowed off her face. Shadow looked at the figures that were pointing guns at her but she didn't care.

* * *

Focusing her mind Shadow said,

"I control water and do you know what?" The soldiers didn't respond but could tell what she meant. They started to step back with their guns still raised at her head.

"EVERYTHING HAS WATER!"

Shadow shouted raising her hands in the air she started to clench her fingers together. The soldier all around her started to float and scream out in agony, all they could do was float and claw in the air around them as their bodies started to become deformed. Their bones in their bodies broke slowly and painfully, all Shadow could think was to make them pay. The soldier's scream finally died out, their faces were contort in pain as their lifeless eyes stared back into the snowy sky.

Shadow fell down to the ground, tears flowed off her face and onto the ground. The Hamato family, Casey and April couldn't truly grasp what just happened but they saw what changed Shadow.

The sound of Shadow crying out for her dead mother and father as she clutched the locket around her neck. Shadow dragged herself towards them, with what little power she had left Shadow was able to gather her mother and father and in case them in two indestructible glass coffins made of the rocks around her and the power of the fire that had greatly increased thanks to the phoenix were now set near the top of the hill that looked over the village. Shadow looked over the coffins and made a marker out of the same glass as the coffins and craved into it the Hatake family seal and her message;

* * *

_Here lies Sado Hatake and Yuri Hatake: _

_Two people who gave their lives now lay here as protectors of the land_

_May God have mercy on their tortured souls that were taken too soon_

_Loved and honored by their only living relative, their daughter _

_Shadow Hatake_

* * *

Shadow slowly placed the marker between her parents along with the kunai knives her mother and father gave her. Shadow slowly started walking away from her use to be home when the sound of clapping caught both her and everyone's attention. A man in a gas mask and hood stepped out of the forest and started walking towards her. Shadow started to run away from the man but was stopped when she felt something cold around her neck. The man in the gas mask shot a collar around Shadow's neck.

"Now I see that you are truly a great specimen and now that I have seen what you are able to do, you will now become part of my how do you say, collection?"

Shadow struggled to get the collar off as the man made his way towards her. The man in the gas mask took out a remote from her back and pointed at her.

"Now, all I need to do is stop your heart with that collar but don't be alarmed I'll restart it, after all you are my new toy and I can't have you breaking on me just yet."

With a push of the button Shadow started to scream out in agony as electric started to flow from the collar and into her body. The man in the gas mask singled for more of his man to come over and hold Shadows' limbs as she flailed them all around. As the soldier held her done the man in the gas mask started laughing uncontrollably until finally Shadow stopped moving. With another press of the button the collar stop sending electricity into her body. Shadow moaned slightly indicating she was still alive.

"Take her to the others we must leave immediately so that I can now start to have some fun."

The soldier roughly grabbed Shadow by the arms and dragged her into the forest where a large container with the symbol of Wendigo, the same symbol the turtles pulled off the soldiers that attack them. Looking inside everyone could see that Shadow was thrown into van with eight other kids; five boys and three girls, the oldest was boy who looking around the age of ten.

* * *

Everything was starting to get darker and darker as the doors to the container were closing, as everyone was being pushed out the pass did they hear the noise of one of the children in there whispering,

"Please…kill us"


	6. Chapter 6: The Pack

Chapter 6:

* * *

As the doors to the container were closed and the voice of one of the kids captured pleaded for death was everyone pushed out of the past and back into the present sewer tunnel they once left. Shadow was back to her present self and was still unconscious from earlier. Leo and Raph helped carry Shadow into her room. April helped get Shadow out of the armor she wore into her night shirt and pants. Slowly and gently placing the sheets over her April placed her glasses and turned on the lamp near Shadow's bed so that when she woke up it won't be in darkness and would be to see once she knew she was home.

April went and joined everyone downstairs in the common room where nothing but the dripping noise of the water leaking from the pipes and the water that flew through the pipes were the sounds that could be heard. No one knew what to say nor do about what they just saw. All they knew was what happened to Shadow and her parents and the man that took her and eight other kids to God knows where. Also if eight other kids were with Shadow then where were the rest? Too many questions with too little answers, nothing could be answered without Shadow but with the reaction of just seeing the logo on the uniform, everyone knew that trying to get answers out of her could push her over the edge.

* * *

~Inside Shadow's room~

Shadow was rolling from side to side in her bed, her eyes were tightly shut she tried to sleep but all that came were nightmares. Ones that she long thought to be hidden deep within her mind resurfaced. Shadow shot up quickly from her bed but the screams and cries for help still rung in her ears. Shadow looked at her lamp and saw her glasses, when she put them on her hands automatically moved to her neck, though the marks from where the collar she wore for most of her life were very faint they still sent shivers up her spine when they were touched. Shadow moved down and grasped her locket in her hands.

Carefully removing the locket off, Shadow opened the locket and stared at the picture of her parents inside it, on the left side was a picture of her parents when they first got married and her mother was pregnant with her. The picture on the right was when Shadow was born with her mother cradling her in her arms while her father was holding the both of them in his arms. Shadow closed the locket and turned it on its back, her father inscribed the back on the locket with a saying he picked up when he traveled for work,

'_Mon bonheur n' a qu' un seul prenom et ton visage' _

Shadow's father would always recite this saying to her mother every time he would have to leave for work. One day Shadow asked her mother and father what it meant after he returned from work.

Shadow's father and mother smiled at her and said,

'_My happiness is your existence' _

Shadow placed the locket back around her neck and under her shirt again. She took a deep breath and walked out the door to talk to her family. Swearing that what happened to her would never happen to them.

'_No matter what happens to me, they will leave. My family will stay together and go on without me if this becomes like before.'_

Shadow looked around as she left her room and found everyone was in the living room staring at the ripped uniform.

Shadow cleared her throat so that the others would notice her. When everyone turned to see Shadow standing above them, Donnie quickly hid the uniform under the table.

"I guess you guys want some answers." Shadow said as she walked over to everyone.

"No, you can tell us another time Shadow. We can wait." Splinter said casting an eye towards everyone.

Shadow shook her head.

"No I can't tell you everything but I can answer some of your questions." Shadow slowly removed her locket and handed it to April.

"Everything you need to know it locked in there. The locket can hold my memories also like a computer does. All you have to do is listen to my voice and clear your minds. When you finish it will either push you out of the memory and back into the real world or you will have to recite the words that are inscribed on the back. Either way I will guide to the memory but never in it." Shadow stated.

"Now are you ready?"

* * *

Every nodded their heads and closed their eyes. Shadow started chanting in an ancient language until everyone was developed into a bright light. When everyone awoke they were surround by nothing but white and portal doors all around them.

"Where do you want to start?" Everyone turned around to see Shadow standing behind them.

"Um I guess where we left off." Donnie said. Shadow nodded and pointed to a portal that was clear. The portal descended from the where it was to in front of everyone, images appeared on the portal.

"Go now, and remember say these words to leave at any time, _'Mon bonheur n' a qu' un seul prenom et ton visage'_." Shadow said pushing everyone through the portal.

Everyone had to cover their eyes but when they opened them they saw that they were in an old underground factory. When they looked down they saw soldiers with the same symbol as the ones that attacked them throwing Shadow and the eight other kids into a cell.

They all floated down when the final kid was thrown in and the bars to the cell were slammed shut. Looking inside they could see that the cell was made of concrete and the bars were made of titanium. No windows were visible and the only light source was an overhead lamp that flickered on and off. The room was bare and cold when the kids woke up one of the older boys went and touched the bars only to have electrical sent coursing through his body. The other kids pushed the older boy away from the bars, he was panting heavily and clutching his chest.

A laughter from an above proved to everyone that the same man that kidnapped them was the same man behind everything. All the kids could do was sit and rest in the cell waiting to see what was in store for them the next day. By then everyone knew that no one was going to say them and they had to stick together as a family.

* * *

The oldest boy had short brown hair and blue eyes, he had a brown shirt with a white undershirt, black pants and shoes. Kai bore a scar across his right cheek. He said his name was Kai and just like Shadow and most of the other kids in the room his parents were murdered by the very man that kidnapped him. Kai said that he had the ability to shape shift into any animal that existed and copy their abilities and power.

Next was the oldest girl with dirty blonde hair that fell to her shoulders and green eyes, she wore a ripped flower printed dress and Mary Jane shoes. Her name was Akane and she said that she could control fire; just like Shadow. Akane came with her younger brother Kyoga who was hiding behind her. Kyoga had short brown hair and green eyes and had a green shirt and black pants and shoes. Kyoga could control fire too but he could also draw out the future if he came in contact with certain objects. Akane said that they were kidnapped from an orphanage.

Then came to the identical twins Riku and Riki they both had black hair and grey eyes but Riki had a short hair while Riku had slightly longer hair. They both had tattered blue shirts and black pants and shoes. Together they both could control electricity and together they could send a powerful blast of electricity out of their hands. From their explanation their parents were killed when they were out of the house but what killed the twins more was that their mother was pregnant with their little sister when she was killed. They both blame themselves for not being able to save them or protect their sister.

Finally came to the last two, the youngest boy Kenji who was around the same age as Shadow and youngest girl who was no more than four, her name was Sora.

Kenji had black hair and amber eyes but just like Kai he bore a scar but only this scar was not on his cheek but was across his right eye. Kenji was able to master any martial art just by watching and reading about it; making him a black belt in almost every martial known to man. Kenji was with his mother when they were attack, his mother shielded him from an attack which cost her life.

Sora had short red hair and blue eyes, she had a dirty white shirt, brown pants and shoes on. Sora could control water like Shadow but she was still too young to know how to use it for healing. Just like Akane and Kyoga, Sora was living in an orphanage when she was kidnapped but at the time of her kidnap she was with the mother nun. The mother nun took Sora and told her to run but by the time Sora escaped she was to watch as the orphanage that she lived in was being consumed by fire and everyone in the orphanage was bring burned alive.

After everyone recanted who they were and what happened to them they all stared at the bars that were holding them.

* * *

Time Skipped forward as the Hamato family, Casey and April watched the next two weeks past, the kids were given little food and water that they all shared. Sora, Kyoga, Kenji and Shadow were the youngest so they were given the bigger portions and when it came down to the wire Sora and Kenji were the ones to eat while everyone else hoped and prayed that there would be food for them. While water was changed every other day food was only given out twice a week. Then came the real reason they were taken which scare not only the kids but everyone that watched.

It was the end of the second week, everyone had gotten their food, and the older kids were figuring out who and when would get food while the younger kids were left to guard and take notice of what was happening.

Suddenly a man in a mask stepped out of the dark room and moved towards the cell with the kids. The man in the mask had a Wendigo mask on with royal robes that looked sort of like what a Catholic priest would wear to preside over his followers. The older kids step forward and hid the younger kids behind them. The man in the mask laughed at this. The man in the mask slowly removed the mask off his face to real an man in his late 40's early 50, he has brown eyes showed no care for the life of others nor himself. He grinned ear to ear as the younger kids coward behind the older kids.

"So you think that you can protect them when you should be looking after yourself after what I have to tell you" The man laughed.

Kai and Akane growled at this.

"Let me explain why your nine are here."

"My name is Yasha and I am the lord and master of your lives now. Just in case you think you will be living here alive, think again. I don't intend for my toys to be living even after I break them. You nine will be pitted against my creations and one by one you all will fall, I just down know how. All you need to know is that every day I will call upon one of you randomly by the number inscribed on your collar.

Another thing if you try and use any of your powers in there I will not only punish you but make you wish you were dead. Now just remember this and one other thing. Never disobey me. Shocking you will be the best part of my day as I watch you plead for your lives and even if you didn't I will enjoy our screams, plus other things that I will make you go through in the future. I can't wait until I see the first of you fight for your lives in my little game."

Yasha left the kids in the cell to think over what just happened.

* * *

Time skipped to the next day.

Yasha appeared dressed in royal robes with the wendigo symbol embroider in the middle, he was surround by soldiers with staff that conducted electricity.

"Oh boy the day is here, now who do I pick to fight in the battle arena." Yasha chuckled. Yasha took out a remote and closed his eyes saying,

"Whoever's collar goes off will be my contestant. Ine mine miney mo, who will be my player, who will put on a show?" By the press of the button a scream from the cell the time for the battle or 'game' as Yasha calls it began. Yasha opened his eyes as everyone turned to see who was scream.

"Ah, I see the last one to be caught now what was your name?" Yasha said in a mocking voice. Yasha released the button as the other kids ran over to Shadow who was panting heavily on the ground grasping her neck.

"Get my prize" Yasha commanded. The doors to the cell were opened and the soldiers marched in with their staffs pointed at the kids. While Kai, Riki, and Riku tried to fight off the soldiers Akane grabbed the younger kids and Shadow from the soldiers. But all was in vain, for Yasha was getting impatient and active everyone's collars. This forced everyone to their knees as they screamed out in pain and clutched their necks. While the other kids were falling to the ground clutching their necks the soldiers were able to take Shadow away and lock up the kids once again. When Yasha ended their suffering it was too late for any of the kids to try and save Shadow.

The Hamato family, April, and Casey moved over to the battle arena. The arena was filled with rocks and boulders with two large doors for in and out at each end of the room, it was lit with stadium arena overhead lights. A cage with spikes all across the inside and outside covered the entire room. The only thing outside of the cage was a box seat for Yasha to watch the battle.

Shadow was dragged into the arena and when Yasha saw that she had nowhere to go he signaled for them to leave. All Shadow had to battle with was a rusty kunai knife that looked like it would fall apart as the slights impact. Shadow looked over the room to see Yasha was presiding over event.

"Now let the games begin. One monstrous child enters the battle and if this 'thing' wins then it will be able to leave alive, but if the 'thing' loses then it will its life that will be lost. Now you will either die here or live whichever I really don't care. Battle my gladiator robots and let me see a show"

Soon after Yasha speech did the door near him open and soon an army of gladiator robots poured into the room. Shadow quickly dived for the rusty kunai and clutched it close to her chest.

Everyone could tell that Shadow was scared but there was nothing for them to do. As the gladiator robots surrounded Shadow, Yasha added a few more words to his speech.

"After you lose, I'll go after your new friends maybe the next fighter will be one of the younglings"

When Yasha finished he took another look at Shadow whose hold demeanor changed when he threaten her new friends. Shadow glared at Yasha she readied both herself and her kunai.

'_I will protect them'_ Shadow thought.

* * *

In the memory portal the Hamato family, April, and Casey could hear her thoughts. When Yasha went after those close to her but not herself Shadow decided that she would do anything to protect them rather than herself. Making them wonder what happened after this. Everyone turn back to the battle as Shadow began fighting for her life. Shadow was able to take most of them down using the rocks, boulders, and earth around her but at times she did get hurt; badly.

By the time the last gladiator was down Shadow was covered in small cuts, bruises, and dirt but when Shadow turned her back one last gladiator used the last of its strength and slash Shadow in the back with its sword then kicked her towards the other side of the arena. Shadow tumbled and rolled into rocks until finally landing on her left side. Blood started to pour off her back onto her shirt and then staining the ground. The sword left a mark from the top of her right shoulder across her back to her left hip in a diagonal line; something that she would have to live with the rest of her life.

The Hamato family, April, and Casey stared with wide eyes at Shadow's back but what shocked them more was the uncontrollable laughter from Yasha. It pissed everyone off that he was getting off at this and was proud of what happened to Shadow.

Yasha then had Shadow dragged out of the arena and back into her cell without giving her any medical attention. The soldiers picked Shadow up under her shoulders and dragged her out and back to her ell. When they arrived back the cell the other kids gathered around and gasped at what they saw. The soldiers threw Shadow back into the cell and left them to take care of her.

Akane held Shadow in her arms while Kai took off his shirt and with the help of Riki and Riku they were able to stop the bleeding and wrap up Shadow's wound. Though Shadow had the power to heal her wounds, this was one of those that she would have to bare for the rest of her life.

"What are we going to do?" Sora choked out. Sora and Kenji were crying over Shadow's unconscious body.

"We fight" Kai said with determination. Kai held Shadow's hand and with everyone they vowed to be with each other until the end. No more backing down, no more cowering in fear because of Yasha. They were not fighting for themselves they were fighting for each other.

"Should we call ourselves something?" Kenji asked.

The older kids chuckled at this, Kenji was trying to get their minds off of all the bad things.

"Yeah, you guys can pick the name Kenji." Kai said looking at Sora, Kenji and Shadow.

"I would like something to do with dragons, you know because they are tough and strong. They never back down and I know if we call ourselves something to do with them then we'll all get out of this." Sora said. Kenji nodded at this adding

"Yeah and dragons are cool looking and each of us are kind of like dragons anyway. No longer will we be called, 'things' 'monsters' or anything of that sort. If Shadow was awake maybe she would agree with me on the name something dragons."

"Imperial Dragons"

Everyone turned towards Shadow, she cracked her eyes slightly to everyone.

"Well this is like an empire and you just said that we are all like dragons also so I thought being an empire of dragons would be a good name." Shadow said with a smirk.

The older kids could tell Shadow was putting on a brave face for the younger kids but they didn't argue with the name. The younger kids jumped up with glee and started chanting their name.

"Let me say something first guys." Shadow said with a serious look. Shadow readjusted herself in Akanes's arms, wincing slightly at each breath and movement she did.

Everyone became quiet and listened.

"That place is a hell hole and from what happened to me you need to know that you can never let your guard down for even the slightly second. I was lucky just to leave with this cut on my back. I don't want any of my new brothers and sisters to die in this place. No matter what happens; fight even at your dying breath. Punch death in the face but try to come back to us.

I rather have my sibling dying in my arms around people that love them than in their there. Hell try and die with a smile because if I'm going down I'll take down as many as those things as I can so my siblings don't have to deal with them." Shadow took a deep breath and looked at her new family once again with a new resolution.

"I am an Imperial Dragon and I state on this day that I will protect those that I call my family and those that cannot protect themselves. If I die I want it to be with my family and friends and I will go not sad or crying at the world but with a smile. Because I will know that I took down one less enemy for my family to deal. So said I, Shadow Hatake."

Shadow placed her hand out and each of the other kids joined her.

Taking the rusty kunai each of the kids craved into the wall behind them with their new resolution, names, ages at the time of the pledge and a reminder of their humanity and lastly where they lived with their families or people they could call families at the time before their abduction.

* * *

_Imperial Dragons _

_Protector of Those That Cannot Protect Themselves Plead Their Lives This Day No Matter How Much Time Pass We Will Always Be Watching Each Other. God Have Mercy On Our Souls For The Lives We Take In Order To Protect Those That Need Us And Those That We Cherish. _

_Goto Kai (Age 10) Osaka_

_ Kirisawa Akane (Age 9) Nigata_

_Kirisawa Kyoga (Age 6) Nigata_

_Nomura Riki (Age 8) Oita_

_Nomura Riku (Age 8) Oita_

_Hatake Shadow(Age 5) Hokkaido_

_Katsugari Kenji (Age 5) Kochi_

_Ishigami Sora (Age 4) Hiroshima_

* * *

**A.N:**

**Yasha - Demon**


	7. Chapter 7: Alone and Dead Inside

Chapter 7:

* * *

After the resolution time skipped once again. The Hamato family, April, and Casey could only tell that time was moving forwards as each kid grew more wounds, slightly taller, paler as each day passed and their clothing was more tattered, ripped, and covered in blood from over use as tourniquets on the extremely wounded. The cell was starting to become covered in blood from every time the kids left to battle and return with a broken battered body.

But then the time skipped stopped on a particular day where all except Kyoga were sitting in the cell waiting for him to return.

It was after Kyoga returned that everything changed.

* * *

Kyoga was dragged in by soldiers but this time they didn't leave, all they did was stand outside of the cell and stared at them. Everyone gathered towards Kyoga as Akane cradle him in her hands.

Everyone saw that Kyoga did what he promised, he was dying with everyone he love around him and with a smile. The wounds that were taking Kyoga away from them was a knife that was just a few inches off his heart, a slash from a sword to his right leg and the sadder sight was his missing right hand. As blood dripped off his body Kyoga looked at everyone and even though he had tears streaming down his face he looked at everyone with a smile.

"I'm glad…you guys are the…last thing I see be-before I die." Kyoga forced a smile. Grasping his sister's hand in his own.

"I did what I h-had to d-do to s-save my family. I'll see…y-you guys again….on….the….other side." Kyoga's left hand dropped from his sister's grasps and fell to his side. Kyoga slowly closed his eyes as he watched everyone grow more distant and darker.

'Goodbye my siblings' Kyoga thought as he gave his last breath.

There was not a dry eye with any of the kids, Akane cradled her dead brother's body in her arms whispering in his ear, 'I love you'. Riki and Riku held Kenji and Sora in their arms while Shadow and Kai tried their best to keep the others from falling apart. It was only a few minutes after Kyoga passed when every discovered why the soldiers that normally disappeared stayed.

Yasha stepped out and walked towards the kids. Pointing at Kyoga's body he said in a demanding tone.

"Give me him"

Everyone snapped out of their trance and rushed to protect Kyoga and Akane, while Akane held Kyoga's body close.

"Never" Akane shouted.

"Heh, I thought so." Yasha said taking out his little device that would send electricity to each of the kid's bodies. Yasha tried to use the device as a way to make them fear him but no one wavered from their position nor their glares at Yasha and his soldiers.

Yasha shrugged his shoulder and said "Oh, well I did warn you."

Yasha mercilessly pressed the button and even raised the voltage up to level 5 to levels away from a skull and cross bones mark on the device. Everyone fell to the ground clutching their necks. Akane tried to shield her brother's body but the pain from the collar was becoming too much for her. Shadow could see from the corner of her eyes that Akane was struggling to shield Kyoga's body.

_'I'm sorry for this Akane'_ Shadow thought. Shadow quickly crawled over to Akane and took Kyoga's body into her own whispering into Akane's ear,

"Sorry but I'll never let Yasha have his body."

Shadow rushed over to one of the corners with Kyoga's body in her arms and with little focus and power she could muster Shadow breathed out a long stream of fire at Kyoga's body. Kyoga's body quickly became ash thanks to Shadow's flame and the intense heat from the phoenix. Shadow smirked through the pain of her collar, saying

"Oh well too bad you can't have everything you want you spoiled rotten brat."

Shadow collapsed to the ground as the pain from the collar grew stronger and stronger. Yasha took his finger off the device to the collars but a vein on the top of Yasha head popped out as he was raging from what Shadow did.

"Get her! NOW!" Yasha yelled out pointing an accused finger Shadow. Everyone was too exhausted from the collars to fight back but Shadow didn't have a grudge against them for that. The soldiers dragged Shadow out of the cell and threw her at Yasha's feet. Yasha took out a knife of his royal robes, and waved it over Shadow's face.

"Oh where, oh where will it land, oh where, oh where, will it be" Yasha chanted.

"I have no regrets do your worse." Shadow said glaring back at Yasha with her grey eyes never wavering as the tip of the knife blade moved back and forth from her view.

Kai rolled off his side and onto his stomach he raised his hand out shouting "NO! DON'T"

* * *

But it was too late, Yasha began to slash at Shadow with his knife. Shadow tried shielding herself with her forearms as blood from the cuts ran off and onto her clothes and floor. Yasha began laughing uncontrollable at the sight of blood and when he was too tried to continue he finished by slashing at Shadow's right eye.

"ARGH!" Shadow yelled out covering her wounded eye with her hands. Yasha signaled towards his soldiers and they began to drag Shadow back with the other kids.

"That's what you get for not heeding my request" Yasha said turning his back to the kids, the soldiers ran up and joined Yasha as they left the bleeding Shadow and other kids to deal with her.

Kai, Riki, and Riku quickly jumped into action and wrapped Shadow's arms with parts of their clothes while Akane held Shadow's head in her lap.

"You mad?" Shadow sheepishly asked. Akane shook her head,

"No if anything I need you to thank you. I think my brother can now rest knowing his body isn't going to be used for anything."

Shadow smiled sadly at Akane as Riki finished applying part of his shirt to Shadow's eye.

"I don't think I'll be using that anymore" Shadow said touching the cloth that was keeping the blood at bay.

"I'm sorry" Akane choked out. Tears started to roll off her face and onto Shadow. Shadow reached out and bobbed Akane lightly on the head saying,

"I would do it again"

Shadow reached into her pocket and pulled out a simple craved stone on a string. The stone had the Kirisawa clan symbol inscribed on the front and Kyoga initial on the back.

"I grabbed it at the last second so that you could still have something from him."

* * *

_It was after the cycle ended with each of the kids fighting for their lives in the battle arena when Kenji asked about what would happen if one of them died. It was a long discussion but the Kai and Akane agreed that they should use small stones in the cell and crave their clan symbol in them and have their initial on the back so that they could tell them apart._

_With each of the necklace they all knew that they would have something left of each other in worst case scenario. Each of them wore the necklace around their necks just like the army did with dog tags._

* * *

Shadow handed it to Akane but she shook her head.

"No let's put it somewhere else so that Yasha can't take it from us." Everyone looked around to where they could hid it. Kenji pointed towards one of the rocks under their pledge.

"How about under there?" Kenji asked.

Kai, Akane, and Shadow with the help of Riku look at the rock. Jamming one of the knives they had under it they were able to loosen the rock enough that they could lift it up. Shadow took part of her shirt and wrapped the necklace in it. Kai and Riku slowly placed the rock down and they all nodded.

Time skipped once again.

Between Shadow, Riki, Riku, and Akane they all decided that if Yasha came to claim one of their bodies one of them would incinerate the body so that they couldn't be used for whatever Yasha could think of.

The Hamato family, April, and Casey watched time move fast forward. Each of the kids gathered more and more wounds from the battle arena while growing taller and skinner. One by one they also started to disappear.

* * *

Riku was the next to be killed, dying in his brother's arm Riki electrified Riku's body so that Yasha couldn't do anything about it. Yasha punished Riki by pulling out his teeth with a dirty wrench.

Riki couldn't eat anymore and became skin and bones even though the other kids tried to help him eat. Every time he tried to eat he would flash back to what Yasha did to him and start to hyperventilate. Riki was finally kill when he entered the battle arena where the only reason he made it out a live was due to adrenaline. Riki died in Shadow's arms but Akane took Riki away from her and incinerated his body herself. Akane was punished for this and had left with the electrical charge on her collar on at level 2 until the next day where she had to go and fight in the arena. She barely made it out but Akane still lived.

* * *

Kai was next, he came in with swords and knifes still sticking out his back. Kai died in Shadow's arms with him telling her that he loved her and that she must continue living. Shadow was about to incinerate Kai's body but Akane intervened and took the punishment for it. Akane was left blind from Yasha's knife, the same knife he used to attack Shadow when she was the first to break one of Yasha's rule. Shadow cried over Akane asking why.

"I did it because just like Kai, I know you will watch over the other kids and live on. Remember this and promise that you will live no matter what." Akane stretched out her pinky and wrapped it around Shadows'. Shadow nodded and said, "By my honor"

* * *

It was no question that Akane was next, she even left her necklace with Shadow when she left to her battle. Akane stated that she wasn't going to come back and that she needed to leave it with Shadow. Sora worry about what would happen to her body after since they won't be able to get to it but Akane reassured them that she would still be able to incinerate her body herself.

It was later that day that they when they got the news about Akane that they knew she achieved her goal and was even able to scar Yasha's face when she died. From what they could piece together Akane engulfed her entire body in flame and ricocheted her flaming body until she impacted where the cage and the box seat that Yasha used to watch them. Yasha now had to bear a scar on the right side of his face from Akane and he was mad at them. Shadow stood protectively over Kenji and Sora when Yasha came in with bandages over the right side of his face.

* * *

Shadow slammed her body into Yasha so that she made sure they would take her instead of the others.

Shadow succeeded and she was dragged away into a dark back room where she was pinned down on an operation table. Shadow struggled under her restraints, Yasha walked into the room with a mischievous smile on the half of his face that Shadow could still see.

"You will pay for your friend mistake."

Shadow spit into Yasha face shouting back, "I'm proud of my sister and I hope to God that I'll be able to pay you back tenfold you monster." Shadow glared at him with her good eye.

"Well I was going to give you a little pain killer but after your little stunt and rant I think not!" Yasha placed heart sensors and heavier restraints on Shadow. Shadow struggled again but now her body won't move an inch.

"Now that I think about it I think the human spline is something you can living without right?"

Before Shadow could answer Yasha started to draw out a line to where both her spline was and where he was going to cut.

"Scream for me" Yasha said.

* * *

Yasha started to cut deeply into Shadow. Shadow struggled under the restraints and cried out for him to stop. But Yasha didn't with little knowledge and skill Yasha cut into Shadow's body and was able to remove her spline. Cradling the organ in his hands he looked it over and then back at Shadow. Shadow was covered in sweat and some blood that sprayed on her during the 'operation', the only saving grace was the fact Shadow passed out during the operation due to blood loss and pain.

Yasha shrugged his shoulders and tossed the organ into the trash stating he had no need for it and left the room with his hands and clothes still covered in blood, stating he needed to take a break from everything and he would be back to sow her up.

Yasha indeed returned after half an hour and by that time the floor was covered in Shadow's blood and Shadow was semi-conscious. Shadow still glared at Yasha as he passed her view. Very sloppily Yasha sowed Shadow back together but Shadow still glared at Yasha for what he did and what he was doing to everyone. Yasha was getting annoyed at this and picked up a scalpel and with no mercy he took Shadow's remaining sight from her. Soldiers came into the room when Shadow started shouting and clutching her head with her hand. The soldiers dragged Shadow out of the room and threw her back with Kenji and Sora.

* * *

Sora and Kenji didn't know what to do but with what little water they had Sora used the knowledge Shadow told her and was about to heal Shadow's wound on her torso and her eye but she warned Kenji that she won't be able to see again. Kenji clutched his fist together tightly as he watched over Shadow.

The good part of their wait was that Shadow wasn't going to be called to battle but that meant that Sora and Kenji would have to take turns fighting. This signaled for Kenji that his death was next. Kenji drag himself back into the cell after his second time in the ring. Sora ran over to catch Kenji and take him over to Shadow who was still lying down from her last ordeal.

"Sora listen to me, I'm dying and I need you to do this for me. I need you to do that thing you did earlier with Shadow and take my eyes. I need you give Shadow my eyes." Kenji pleaded.

Sora was shocked, Shadow and other kids talk about things like the human anatomy at times and Shadow did explain how to do operations on the others since she was the only other person that could control water and needed to learn how to heal but still to try and attempt it meant that if she failed both Shadow and Kenji would suffer. Kenji placed his hands on Sora's face and brought their foreheads together.

"I believe in you little sister I know you can do this. Do this for Shadow she is the one that can get out of this. Trust me." Kenji stated. Sora looked back from Kenji and Shadow and nodded her head.

Sora began the long process of giving Shadow Kenji's eyes but after most of the night and into the next day Kenji was lying with his eyes wrapped up and Shadow lying next to him with her eyes uncovered. Sora stepped back and wiped the sweat off her brow. All that needed to happen was Shadow to open her eyes. Sora waited for both the call to battle or Shadow to wake up and the news about Kenji's sacrifice and death.

* * *

Shadow grumbled a bit but opened her eyes, she was shocked when she saw that she could see. Shadow turned to see Sora with tears running down her face and Kenji lying next to her.

"No, no, no, no, Sora you didn't?" Shadow looked at Sora but all she could do was nodded. Shadow cradled Kenji's body in her arms.

Shadow removed Kenji's necklace and gave it to Sora to hide. Shadow held Sora back and handed hers to her also stating that she couldn't wear it anymore. Sora nodded and placed Shadow and Kenji's necklace with the others but before she put the rock back down Sora added hers to the pile. While Sora placed the necklaces under the rock Shadow incinerated Kenji's body. Shadow pulled Sora into her arms after she was down and started to cry.

"What I see is what Kenji would also see, so I must continue to live for the both of us now." Shadow stated wiping the tears from her face.

Shadow turned to see Yasha making his way to them once again. Yasha was shocked to see that Shadow didn't have tattered shirts over her eyes but now she had amber eyes in place of her once natural grey eyes. Yasha looked around to see no body of Kenji so he knew that something happened while he wasn't looking.

This anger Yasha but he had a way of making them pay. Yasha signaled to his soldiers. The soldiers both dragged Shadow and Sora out of the room and into the battle arena.

Yasha stepped out and announced with glee what was about to happen.

"You will both put on a show for me. Two have entered and only one will make it out alive. Now fight and give me a show."

Shadow and Sora stared at each other. Both of them didn't want to fight but when they didn't move and Yasha used the collars around their necks to make them they both knew they had to end this. Sora looked at Shadow who was willing to kill herself so that Sora could make it when she sadly smiled at Shadow.

"I didn't want to tell you thing Shadow but just like you I can control more than one element but I didn't think I would have to tell you this way."

Shadow confused by this asked, "What do you mean little sister?" Sora took Shadow's knife and with force angled it to her.

Shadow looked with wide eye saying, "You can use metal." Sora nodded and said, "I can also use fire but I was too scare to tell you guys when you started to get rid of everyone's body. I still can hear everyone's screams from their punishments for taking away what Yasha wanted but not I don't care. I'm sorry for being selfish but remember just like everyone I love you and you need to live for us. After all you were always different even from us." Sora didn't wipe the tears that began to follow off her face. Planting herself firmly in the ground Sora manipulated the knife out of Shadow's hand and directly into her chest where she smiled sadly at Shadow and said

"Until we meet again." Sora turned herself into a big ball of fire and laid on the ground with Shadow rooted to the ground. Sora was the last to die while Shadow continued to live for them.

* * *

Time skipped for the last time

The Hamato family, April and Casey watched time move forward. Shadow continued to grow and fight. With more wounds and little care in the world there was no need for Shadow to wear the collar anymore. When everyone stared into Shadow's eyes they were all devoid of life; Shadow was dead to the world.

That changed one day. From what Shadow could understand she was ten years old and it was the anniversary of her capture. Yasha decided to no longer hold Shadow in a cell and moved her into a room with a cot and blanket and he even started feeding her regularly. Shadow didn't understand this but from what she could piece together Yasha had his full trust in her. When Shadow was moved she secretly took the cloth that had all the necklaces in them with her in the move. Shadow ripped a part of her blanket and placed the necklaces in it, tying the top off Shadow attached it to her waist.

Yasha had achieved his plan with the nine kids, turning one into an emotionless indestructible killing machine that would do as he pleased. Yasha thought he broke Shadow but when he started to reveal where they were located was when Shadow turned on him. Shadow played Yasha in his little mind game and only pretended to be broken so that he would leave his guard down.

Shadow looked at Yasha and just like what he did to her years ago, Shadow left him a faith worse than death, she stole the last of Yasha sight with the same knife he used on her and Akane. Shadow battle the soldiers that tried to come after her but by that time they forgot that she fought for the last five years of her life. Shadow easily defeated all the soldiers that came after her.

When she left the old factory Shadow had to cover her face with her arms and find somewhere to hide until the sun left the sky. When the sun finally came down Shadow found a sign that said that she was in Kyoto; one of the countryside of Japan. From there Shadow walked until she couldn't anymore. With the bag with all the necklaces in her hand Shadow collapsed in the middle of a village market. No one ran over to help her as they walked over her body. That was until a small large figure's shadow loomed over her. Shadow didn't have any strength left but when she peered out of he corner of her eyes at the figure she could see he may help her.

* * *

"Who are you?" The man asked.

"Shadow"

"I am what people call the Ancient One please let me help you heal some of your wounds." The Ancient One said holding out one of his hands. With a trembling hand Shadow grasped the Ancient One's hand.

* * *

Everyone watched until they were forced out of the portal and back in the room with all the memory portals with Shadow looking over them.

"Does that help?"


	8. Chapter 8: More to Come

Chapter 8:

* * *

Shadow looked at everyone but no one could look at her. The images of what they just saw were still fresh and every time one of them glanced at Shadow did some memory of what happened to Shadow and her family replay in front of their eyes. All Shadow did was stare at them. When she could see that nothing was going to change, Shadow turned her back to them and started to walk back into her room. But before she left, Shadow left some parting words she thought would help them out a bit,

"You know, you just watched the worst parts of my life if there is any consolation is that after that it gets a bit better but really meeting all of you have been the best 6 months of my entire life." Shadow said with a wry smile.

"Oh yeah, don't ask about any of marks. Visible or not I still feel the sting of each one." Shadow added before she jump kicked her way into her room.

As the door slowly shut to her room, did everything once again change.

* * *

~One week later~

While everyone was still trying to understand and get over what they saw from Shadow's past, Shadow was doing everything she could to avoid them. From locking herself in her room to stating she found a job and that she was going to be gone all day. It was as if everyone was walking on egg shells and no one wanted to talk about it.

It was late Friday when something happened.

The Hamato family was getting ready for dinner. Leo and Don were setting the table while Mikey was cooking dinner. Splinter was mediating in his room while Raph was watching the news on the television while twirling his sai between his fingers. The table was set for six even though Shadow would just take her plate into her room and eat.

But this time they were going to make Shadow stay so they could talk to her about everything, they didn't like how things were going and that their unity as a family was starting to break. Donnie looked at the time.

"Hmm, she's late." Donnie muttered.

Leo looked at the time on his shell cell, it read 7:45. Shadow would work from 9-5 but even if she worked late she would still come home around 6:30. This worried Leo because Shadow never did this sort of stunt.

"Maybe I should call her." Leo stated looking at his shell cell.

But Donnie shook his head, "Don't she's probably running late because something happened at work or there was an accident somewhere and she's stuck in traffic."

Leo looked at Donnie then back at his shell cell, shrugging his shoulders he placed his shell cell back onto his belt and went back to setting the table.

No one knew what or where Shadow got a job and even how but they all trusted her and they knew if she needed help she would talk to them.

The clock finally stuck 8:30 and there was still no sign of Shadow. The food was cold and untouched and everyone was getting antsy after sitting at the table for almost an hour.

Raph roughly stood up from his seat, his chair hit the floor the same time his fist hit the table.

"That's it I'm calling the kid and when she gets home I'm gonna strangle her." Raph yelled grabbing his shell cell and dialing Shadow's number.

No one wanted to really argue with Raph about calling Shadow but they were going to stop him from killing her.

Three rings and still no answer, Shadow's shell cell went to voice mail.

"That little brat better have a good explanation for this. Donnie use one of your machines and find her for me." Raph stated closing his shell cell and slamming it on the table.

Donnie walked over to his computer, his fingers moved quickly over the keyboard as he started to use the GPS in Shadow's shell cell to find her.

"That's strange." Donnie muttered.

"What is it my son?" Splinter asked.

Donnie turned his head from the computer screen and answered,

"Well from the GPS on Shadow's shell cell it's telling me that she's outside the garage and from the look of it she's been there a while"

Everyone looked at each other then walked over to the elevator to take them up to the garage.

"That kid is toasted when I get to her." Raph muttered under his breathe.

"Come on Raphie don't be mad at Shadow, she probably has a good reason for no coming in and not answering her phone." Mikey said.

Mikey quickly ducked under Raph's fist.

"Don't call me Raphie you idiot." Raph roared.

"Leo help!" Mikey exclaimed as he ran around the garage with Raph on his tail.

Leo and Donnie rolled their eyes, Leo walked over to the garage switch and pressed it.

The garage doors started to hum and opened. Everyone stepped out to look for Shadow.

Mikey pointed to a silhouette slumped against the wall of the garage.

Every walked over to the silhouette when Mikey exclaimed,

"Eww, I stepped in something squishy."

Mikey groaned at this trying to see what he stepped in. Donnie took out a flashlight from his bag and shined it on Mikey's foot.

Everyone gasped at what they saw.

"It's blood. Donnie shine your light over there." Leo stated pointing at the figure covered by darkness.

Donnie shined his light onto the figure. When the light hit the figure, Donnie dropped his flash light into the blood. The light still shined onto the figure and that was what scared everyone.

"Shadow" Donnie muttered.

* * *

Shadow was slumped over against the wall of the garage, one hand was holding onto her shell cell while the other was holding a kunai. She was pale and had blood splatter across her face and her glasses were barely hanging together on her face. Shadow's left shoulder looked funny and out of place. Everyone raced over to her, Donnie carefully turned her body onto her back to see the damage.

Shadow's entire torso was soaked in blood but the only good thing was that from all the cut marks on her shirt they could tell that none of them were fatal. But what was killing her was blood loss.

"We need to get her back into the lair." Donnie stated. Raph took Shadow from Donnie's arms and carried her princess-style into the lair. Everyone followed Raph as they ran back into the garage and into the lair. No one noticed the shadowy figure watching them from the rooftop across from them

The shadowy figure picked up the radio attached to his vest, the radio made a clicking noise when he pressed one of the buttons on the side. The shadowy figure spoke into the radio saying,

"They found her. Should we move onto phase three, Master?" there was a bit of static until a gravelly voice spoke,

"Wait until my signal then process." The shadowy figure acknowledged the command and backed slowly away from the ledge of the roof top.

Back in the lair.

Donnie had called April and Casey for some help with Shadow.

While April tended to Shadow's wounds, Donnie started her transfusion from Casey.

"Donnie there's so many here." April stamper out.

Donnie looked over to Shadow, at first April and Donnie counted how many open cuts Shadow had but after a while they just stopped counting.

"What the hell happened to her?" Donnie muttered.

* * *

~3 hours later~

Donnie and April walked out of the lab with a wobbly Casey. Casey was leaning against the lab door when Raph walked over to his friend and helped him onto the couch. While Casey rested his head, everyone gathered around April and Donnie to hear the news.

"What have you determined my son?" Splinter asked.

Donnie took a deep breath and answered,

"From what April and I examined we can only tell you that Shadow was attacked my multiple assailants and the only reason she didn't bleed out from her wounds was because of the cold. But what trouble me more was that because none of these wounds would have killed her. I mean yes after a while the blood loss would have but that would have taken a long time. Someone wanted her to not to die but to suffer." April placed a hand on Donnie's shoulder and continued.

"There are over a dozen small cuts on Shadow's torso, she has a dislocated shoulder and a fracture to her left ankle. There is also a possibility that she has a head injury and that's why she hasn't woken up yet."

"Is she going to be okay?" Mikey asked.

April nodded, "She's going to need rest but she should make a full recovery but now we need to talk about what happened."

"Agreed. We need to figure out why Shadow was targeted and by whom." Leo said.

"Yeah and when I get my hands on who did this they'll regret bein' born" Raph said smacking his fist into his hand.

"If only we knew what happened, then we could go off that." Donnie said.

Everyone turned to the doors to the lab. Shadow could show them what happened to her just like she did in the past but Shadow only agreed to do show them. But with what happened Shadow would more than likely do anything to protect them from the truth.

"My sons, there is a way to see into the past but I am afraid what it will do to your relationship with your sister." Splinter said. Leo, Raph, Mikey, Donnie, and April turned to Splinter as he explained.

"When we first entered the mind of your sister she told us of a saying that would transport us out of the realm but in during so she also told of another way to enter back into the realm. In order to reenter the realm we must clear our minds while one of us says these words, Tu fui, ego Eris."

"What does that mean sensei?" Mikey asked.

"It means; what you are, I was what I am, you will be, my son. Now come my sons we are about to enter your sister's mind. Just before warned that after doing this things will change with your sister. Miss O'Neil and Mr. Jones will stay here and watch over your sister."

"Sensei I don't really understand what's gonna happen to Shadow that is gonna change her." Raph asked.

"How would you feel if someone barged into your mind and memory without your permission?" Leo stated.

"Oh, yeah" Raph answered.

"Come my sons we need to work quickly." Splinter ordered.

* * *

Everyone sat in lotus position and started to clear their minds, Splinter muttered under his breath,

"Tu Fui, Ego Eris"

In a shroud of darkness everyone entered a deep mediation. When everyone opened their eyes they were surrounded by darkness instead of light.

"What going on?" Mikey asked.

"My sons, this is what Shadow's mind truly looks like. When we first entered her mind did you not notice it was almost forced?"

Raph, Donnie, and Mikey shook their heads no but Leo remained unchanged from the question. Splinter acknowledged his eldest son's silence as his answer. Looking around Splinter pointed at the portal at the far end of the room.

"There my sons." Everyone started to walk towards the portal when they were forced to stop when a black mist appeared in front of it. At first everyone reached for their weapons but when they saw who stopped them they immediately stopped.

"Shadow?" Donnie said in a questionable tone.

Shadow looked like she did when she still lived in the cell. Her clothes were somewhat tattered and blood covered her face, shirt and pants. Shadow looked at them with a questionable face mouthing the words '_Why_'

"Shadow you must move and let us enter." Splinter said.

But all Shadow did was shake her head no. Shadow looked at her family and pointed towards the portal next to her, mouthing the word, '_go_'.

Everyone looked at each other thinking that in their minds they had to move Shadow but in their gut they were being told to trust in their sister. Everyone nodded and entered the portal next to them.

But the portal closed, Shadow stood in front of the portal mouthing the word,

'_Family'_

Everyone opened their eyes not the streets of New York but the hills and mountains of Japan. Turning in circles they could see that they entered the time period when Shadow was being recused by the Ancient One. With little arguments about Shadow playing them, everyone watched the story unfold of Shadow and the Ancient One living together.


	9. Chapter 9: The Past is Coming Back

Chapter 9

Shadow was being tended to by the Ancient though from the look of things it looked like the Ancient One gave her something to make sleep. The Ancient One quickly clean and tended to any open wounds but also took notice of any old scarring that covered most of her body. Shadow was sleep somewhat peacefully on a futon, her tatter clothes were taken away from the Ancient One and were replaced with a basic grey yukata.

The Ancient One walked out of the room with the bandages and bowl of water with a blood soaked towel and returned with a clean bowl of water and towel. The Ancient One kneeled down beside Shadow's head and began to ring out the towel and place it on top of her forehead. Shadow winced a bit and her knitted her brow but she slowly started to relax and fall into a deeper sleep.

* * *

~Two days later~

Shadow woke up to the sun light creaking its way into her room from an open window, warming her cheek. Turning her head around she could see she was lying on a futon in a Japanese style room. Shadow tried to sit up but a shooting pain from her chest forced her back onto the futon. Just as Shadow fell back on the futon did the sound of sliding door catch her attention, immediately Shadow went on the defensive when she saw a very large man with a red vest, loincloth, and a straw hat dangling on his neck by a string.

"Do not worry young one I am a friend. Do you not remember me from before?" The man asked. Shadow shook her head.

"Well kumquat I am called the Ancient One now tell me are you feeling alright I worry that the bandages are too tight." Ancient One said. Shadow looked down at her bandaged torso; touching slightly with her fingertips she shook her head.

"No they are just fine. My name is Shadow and I am forever in your debt." Shadow said slightly bowing her head.

The Ancient One shook his head.

"No need to thank me, now get some rest after this we will talk about what is to come in the near future."

Shadow nodded her head and quickly got back under the covers. For once Shadow was able to let down her guard and fall into a somewhat peaceful sleep. Still towards the middle of the night she got up and placed her back against the corner of the wall and stared at the sliding doors to her room. Unarmed Shadow readied her fist to fight off anyone that tried to come into her room.

The Ancient One knew of this but remain silent over her actions for the next few nights. Shadow was able to take off her bandages and move without feeling any pain, she was back to a normal weight from eating the Ancient One's food. She was starting to eat regularly which made the Ancient One happy.

Shadow opened up to the Ancient One about what happened to her over the past five years, from the murder of her parents and her kidnapping to the towards the tortures and death of her new family by the hands of Yasha.

Ancient One's heart broke as Shadow told her tale but he had to remain stronger in front of her. The Ancient One decided to take Shadow under his wing and try and show her the compassion and goodness of humans. Though Shadow was at first apprehensive about this she could see what she could trust him.

For the next two years Shadow lived and trained with the Ancient One. From learning about all the martial arts and discipline of the Bushido code to everyday life and control of her powers. Shadow grew with knowledge of what it took to be a kunoichi and a human being. Through Shadow knew she would never belong in that kind of world the Ancient One did tell her of his extended family that lived in New York who were also not human.

The Ancient One didn't tell Shadow too much about them but he still told great tales of them from letters he received back and forth from one of them.

Then one day while Shadow was mediating on the porch she could hear the Ancient One talking to someone. Shadow got up from her spot and walked back into the house, Shadow was about to knock on the Ancient One's door but stopped when she heard the him speak.

"Yes, I believe that she must go to you my old friend. She needs to grow and believe in people. Because I fear that even with all of my help her hatred towards humans could make a turn for the worst."

Shadow took a step back from the door before running back outside. As Shadow ran outside the Ancient One continued to speak.

"My wish is that Shadow can learn to trust others and I am hoping that with your help that she could start to open up more. Just like my son, Yoshi I hope leaving on her own journey will help. I pray that this message gets to my friend and that Shadow will come to know what human compassion feels like. My one regret is that I have grown so attached to her that once again I feel a part of me cracking at the steam. I will truly miss her but this is the best."

But Shadow never heard the rest of the message and at that very same time the Hamato family was being attacked by mousers and their home was destroyed. The message never read and Shadow leaving thinking the Ancient One was abandoning her after he promised to be there with hew no matter what. Shadow ran out of the house she went to visit the graves of Yoshi and Tang Shen. She prayed for their guidance and their help with her decision.

That night Shadow gather her bag with all the necklaces and some spare clothes and food and left the Ancient One's house and care. All she knew is that she had to get away, leaving a note Shadow snuck onto a boat that was leaving Japan to New York. Shadow's new goal was to find the ones the Ancient One would tell great tales and hold highly. But she had no clue who they were, all she knew that their last name was Hamato and that she had a small carving of what the clan symbol looked like from the Ancient One. Along with the small knowledge of them living in Manhattan Shadow lived on the streets for one year until that faithful night that their paths crossed.

* * *

The Hamato family was pushed out of the portal and back into the endless space of Shadow's memories. Everyone was silent as they exited the dream realm and returned to their world.

"My sons it seems that we must discuss something together as a family." Splinter stated.

"Hai sensei." The boys said.

Splinter bowed and left his sons to return to his room to mediate.

Don left and shut himself in his lab while Mikey and Raph left to go watch television. Leo on the other hand went to see Shadow. April left them a note saying that Casey and herself had to leave due to work in the morning and Shadow was upstairs resting in her room. Leo slowly opened the door to Shadow's room. Peering into the dark room Leo flicked on the light switch near the door. The room was dimly lit making everyone still barely visible, Leo looked around the room to see Haku curled up on his little bed with a small chew bone near his feet. The little pug had tired himself out chasing Klunk around the lair today and even in his sleep his legs were still kicking in the air.

Shadow was sleeping in her pjs with the blanket pulled up to the bottom of her neck, a damp rag was on her forehead to try and help with her fever. Leo gently took the rag off her head and rewet it in a bowl by her bedside table. As Leo rang out the rag the sound of the eater splashing back in the bowl caused Shadow to stir.

"Shhhh, imotto it's me Leo. Everything is ok." Leo said softly

The brows on Shadow's face burrowed deeper, Leo feared that their uninvited journey into Shadow's memories was causing her to see her unforgettable past. Leo took the rag into his hands and placed it on her forehead, moving his hands away from her face he placed his left hand onto of Shadow's head and slowly stroked her head.

Leo talked to Shadow in a soft calming voice about his past with his brothers. Leo talked to Shadow for hours until the tension in Shadow's face disappeared and her breathing calmed. Leo let out a breathe of relief. Leo was about to leave until a small voice called out to him,

"Don't go"

Leo looked back to see Shadow staring at him with sad eyes, she stretched out her arm out to try and stop Leo but when she tried to sit up Leo quickly ran over and stopped her. The wounds on her chest and Leo's hand stopped Shadow but caused her a bit of pain. Leo slowly helped Shadow back into bed and placed the blanket back over her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Leo said taking Shadow's hand into his own. Squeezing it slightly to reassure her. Shadow squeezed back and slowly closed her eyes.

Leo rested his bed on the edge of the bed and whispered to Shadow as sleep over took both of them

"I promise to protect you even if it cost my life."

While at the same time Shadow thought of the same thing,

'_I swear to protect you and everyone else no matter what happens to me.'_

* * *

~Two days later~

Shadow was finally out of bed and all the bandages were removed. While Shadow was able to heal all the wounds she still had to rest from the use of her powers and from an old injury to her shoulder that was causing her great discomfort to a point she had to wear a sling and use Splinter herbs to help with the pain.

Shadow didn't have much to tell them about her attack but she knew that she told them that they were the same people that attack them a week ago that they would go ballistics so she lied and told them they could have been the foot soldiers but she wasn't 100% sure.

But with this little lie came the trouble of calming Raph from having him run out of the lair to go and get revenge. While Shadow left that to Leo and Splinter, Shadow left to visit April and Casey until she got called back to the lair.

Shadow was visiting for two reasons, she wanted to talk to them about the attack and talk to them about what to do and she was able to send a letter to the Ancient One and asked him to send her the chest she left behind.

When Shadow entered the apartment from the roof, she could hear April and Casey talking from the hallways. Shadow pressed her ear against the door and listen to them talk,

"Come on babe we need to talk her."

"Two things, one stop calling me babe and second until Shadow opens up more we aren't asking. You know Shadow is already wry of humans and it has been a long journey to get her to trust us. You need to be patience, Shadow will do it one day but you can not push her."

"I know that I's just so frustrated, I wanna know what happened to her cause not knowin' is killin' me. I wanna show whoever did that crap to her ta feel what she felt fer all those years and more."

Shadow took her ear away from the door, she could tell from the sound of Casey's voice that if she told them what happened it could cause more trouble than tell her family. Deciding to leave, Shadow looked around the room and saw the chest she sent for from the Ancient One. Shadow wrote a note to April and Casey to tell them she came by to see them and get the chest she asked the Ancient One to send and because she didn't see them and thought they were working still she left and took the chest with her.

It was a medium size chest that held parts of her past and her time with the Ancient One hidden inside. Carefully picking up the chest and minding her shoulder Shadow carried the chest back the lair and hoped that everything and everyone was calmer.

When Shadow entered the lair it had an eerie silence, Shadow placed the chest down on the floor of the lair and looked around for everyone. Shadow walked into the kitchen to see a note on the table. Opening the note to see that Leo had written;

_Shadow_

_Raph still wouldn't calm down so with Master Splinter we decided to go on a run and see if that calmed him down a bit. We called April and Casey to come and help out with his anger so don't worry about him. After a run and maybe a sparring match with us and Casey should calm him. We'll be home around midmorning so don't wait up. _

_We'll see you in morning_

_Leo_

Shadow chuckled at bit at the note Leo wrote. Between Leo and Don Shadow wondered how they treated the others. Raph on the other hand was the most overprotective of her and while Mikey was protective of her like Leo and Don, tonight was just another time that she had to be careful of what would happen if Raph knew about what happened earlier or the other secrets she kept closed off in her heart.

Shadow placed the note in her pocket and left to carry the chest back to her room. Haku who was sleeping on the couch in the living room perked his head up when he hear Shadow moving the chest again. Wagging his tail he ran over and started to jump around Shadow in a circle as she carried the chest up the stairs to her room. With Haku hot on her tail Shadow watched as Haku bolted into their room and jumped onto his bed. Shadow placed the chest on the floor of her head then moved over to pick up Haku and place him on her lap. Shadow placed Haku on his back with his belly facing up and gave him a few belly rubs. After a few kicks from Haku against her stomach Shadow picked Haku up and placed him on her bed before lowering herself back to the ground in front of the chest.

Shadow moved her fingers slightly over the lock on the chest before squeezing it slightly in her hands. The lock melted quickly in the heat radiating off her hands, with a melted lock Shadow through the lock into a jug of water she kept on her desk then threw it away in her trash bin. Shadow slowly opened the chest to reveal everything she left behind still in perfect condition, beside the dust from the year and a half of being untouched.

* * *

Shadow looked over everything with a small smile. There was three swords that she was given to by the Ancient One. Just like Leo the Ancient One and herself created the swords themselves and even designed them. But unlike the swords she made with Leo these were made with the help of the Ninja Tribunal. Taken and created from the Spirit Forge and Juto-Shisho Shadow received three swords each depicting a dragon and phoenix clashing on the cover, Shadow's main sword resembling "Gunshin" the sword that commands the "White flame of the dragon king". The difference between the two swords was that Shadow's sword commanded the "Black flame of the Dragon of Darkness", the sword if touched by someone other than Shadow would be consumed by a never ending black flame that could never be quenched.

Her second sword was just like the one she made with Leo, Shadow was adamant with Leo about the look of the sword because it had the same design as the one the Ancient One personally made and design for her but for difference was that the Ancient One had the Ninja Tribunal transfer the icy breathe of the Dragon Queen's breathe into the blade. When the blade was taken out and shined into the light it looked like it was made out of ice and one touch of the blade would turn a person to ice.

The finally blade was a short blade that Shadow used the most, this one was used by Yoshi when he was younger and was training with the Ancient One, Shadow loved this blade not only because it was used by Yoshi but Shadow worked better with short range attacks than anything. While Shadow's other blades had magic in them this one was a normal blade that was kept well and fixed on a regular basis. This was the only blade Shadow didn't leave in the chest and had the Ancient One watch over it until she returned. Shadow took the blades to place them into a spare holder she had on her wall. Looking back into the chest Shadow's small smile grew a bit bigger.

Not only was the bag with all the necklaces from her other siblings still in the chest but also the a framed picture of all the kids and another with her and the Ancient One sitting under a cherry tree sipping tea by a lake as the sun rise over the mountain tops. The picture was taken by a passerby who was visiting Japan at the time. While Shadow didn't even look at the passerby the Ancient One got up and asked if he could have the picture developed and given to him. The other picture of the kids was one a rare day that Yasha was out the kids were left alone in their cell taking care of their injuries and trying to feed the younger kids. While everyone was preoccupy the doors to the cell opened, quickly Kai, Akane, Riki, and Riku got up from where they were and ran over to the other kids and shielded them as a man came into the room.

Everyone knew that it was just another soldier and doctor, the soldier to protect the doctor while the doctor came to observe, never treat them. But this time was different, the soldier came in with a bag over his shoulder and the doctor came in with a medical bag of his own. The doctor explained to everyone that he didn't agree with Yasha and what he was doing so he decided to help them out a bit. The soldier was revealed to be his older brother and they were the reason Yasha was gone. At first no one believed them and believed that the food was poisoned and the doctor was going to try and experiment on them. The doctor and soldier could see the damage Yasha did to them and slowly tried to show the kids that they meant no harm, they even took small pieces of each of the items of food they brought and ate them. They even took each of the things of the doctor out and show them that everything was just bandages, scissors and tweezers for the thread that the doctor was going to use to stich their wounds. Along with antibiotics and needles there was nothing else in the bag beside a small camera.

Each kid slowly walked over to the doctor and soldier, while one by one was treated by the doctor the soldier handed out the small boxes with simply rice, a few vegetables and two slices of meat. While to most people the box had nothing and was something to laugh at the kids saw it as a five star course, savoring each bite. The doctor took out the camera and explained to the kids he wanted to take a picture of all of them so that they could capture a bit of happiness in hell. They couldn't help them escape but they wanted them to look back at the picture and remind themselves of a time of good. The picture was taken outside of the cell with the Kai, Akane, Riki, and Riku stand in back shoulder to shoulder with Shadow, Kyoga, Kenji, and Sora standing in front of them with their arms around their shoulders. When the picture was taken, developed, and hidden everyone thought that this would continue but later that week they found out the same doctor and soldier were killed for trying to get the kids out. No one knew what happened to them but they prayed that they at least had a painless death but with Yasha they knew that was only a prayer with no answer.

Shadow carefully took the pictures out of the chest and placed them on her desk with the picture of herself with the Hamato family and Haku in Shadow's arms. The picture of the Hamato family was still in the middle but on the left beside the frame held her time with the Imperial Dragons and the other side held her time with the Ancient One and her transition back into humanity.

The finally thing left in the chest was the same thing she made with Don, armor. The difference between the two was that the one she had with the Ancient One was lighter and had more of a traditional kunoichi feel to the design. But Shadow still loved the one she made with Don and would be her main armor she wore out fighting, the other one would be secondary and would stay in her drawers to keep it safe.

Shadow closed the chest and placed it under her bed, getting ready for bed and Haku his chew bone, looked around the room to see her past self-coming out in the person she was trying to be. Though Shadow thought this would upset her but thanks to the Hamato family, April and Casey the little things she had made the room feel more like home. Turning off the light and getting undercovers Shadow went into to a peaceful sleep for the first time in a long time.

* * *

If only Shadow stayed awake or left to find her friends and family. Then maybe what happened could have been avoid. But the sad part is that the past will always come back to haunt you, if only Shadow's past wasn't this violent.


	10. Chapter 10: Hotaru

Chapter 10

The turtles along with Splinter, April and Casey were running along the rooftop of New York. Raph and Leo were leading the pack with Mikey, Don, Splinter and April not too far behind, Casey on the other hand was barely keeping up.

Everyone stopped once they reached the Brooklyn Bridge, while Casey and April took a seat near the edge to rest and Splinter was kneeling down beside them as they all watched the turtles spar with each other.

While Mikey and Don were goofing around and taking it easy, Leo was making it his duty to try and channel Raph's anger onto himself as they fought each other. The sound of metal clashing against each other echoed between the two. Raph wanted nothing more than to go after the foot and show them why they shouldn't mess with his family but Leo on the other hand saw that a direct revenge assault would only leave them with more troubles. As Leo and Raph continued to fight figures cloaked in black robes watched from afar.

* * *

One of the cloaked figures stood in front of all the other figures staring at the turtles through binoculars. The figure next to him turned his head and asked,

"Master, is it time?" The one called master watched as Leo and Raph continued to clash, Don and Mikey finally stopped their little sparring match to sit near their friends and father and watch their two older brothers.

The one called master nodded his head, removing the binoculars from his face he pointed at the Hamato family and friends.

"Remember I need them alive. Hatake will soon remember why you can't defy me." Master said resting his hand on his chin.

The one next to master bowed his head and signaled for the other cloaked figures to follow. As the small army of cloaked figures jumped and started running to the unsuspecting family and friends did master remove his hood.

Master started rubbing a long scar across his face as if he was trying to relive the pain he went through. Master grinned as the scene flashed through his mind.

* * *

~Meanwhile~

Raph and Leo were panting heavily, Leo was leaning against one of his katana blades heavily while Raph kneel on the ground with his sais still clenched tightly in his hands.

"Enough Raph this has been going on for hours you need to calm down." Leo yelled.

Raph shook his head vigorously and spat back, "Shut the hell up Leo let me do as I please."

Leo closed his eyes and shook his head. Leo knew Raph and that the only way to stop him was to physically drag him back home.

Raph and Leo charged at each other once again. But as their weapons were about to clash the cloaked figures made their move. The leader threw a knife between the two brothers fighting. Drawing their attention away from each other the leader made sure to show the Hamato family and their human friends the crest on his armor.

Everyone readied their weapons and watched as the group of cloaked figures surrounded them. The leader of the group step forward and said,

"Those who ally themselves with the one called Shadow will face an unpleasant end. Now if you give her to us then you will have a painless death. Choose now or I will choose for you." The leader stated signaling to his army. Every one of his army disrobed showing that they all wore the same armor as the one that attacked them earlier. While the leader wore a Japanese demon mask that stretch over his entire head.

"Just who do you think you are? You don't have the right to tell us what to do or think that we would hand over our sister to a group of murders." Raph yelled.

The leader's shoulders were shaking until he could no longer contain his laughter at Raph's statement.

"You call us murders I think you got us confused from Shadow. We are just peaceful creatures while Shadow is a coldblooded assassin. I don't know what brainwashing you have gone under from being near her but I believe that we came at the right time to free you and spare your lives from that monster.

"I swore on my father's grave that I would bring an end to anyone who opposed my father I will rid those that are the incarnation of demons. By the word of my father Yasha you all will leave this world in body bags for my name is Hotaru" Hotaru yelled.

Hotaru grabbed a sword from his back and charged at the Hamato family. The soldiers took this as a sign and join in with their leader.

"My sons, I know I have taught each of you that it will darken your soul if you take a life but now I want you to disregard that help make sure none of them leave here alive." Splinter said.

"Hai sensei." The turtle said in unison. Raph was the happiest out of them because now he didn't have to hold back.

Every charged at the incoming army, while Master Splinter and Leo dealt with Hotaru everyone else dealt with his army. Don and Mikey could see that Raph and Casey were both extremely pissed off. Body after body fell under there uncontrollable rage, as the blood splattered from each moment of the turtles to Casey's style of bare knuckled fighting the large army started to diminish to only Hotaru and a few of his underlings.

Everyone was panting heavily as blood dripped off their bodies and weapons. At times Hotaru sacrificed one of his soldiers when either Leo or Master Splinter were about to make the kill shot.

This disgusted Leo and Splinter saying that he had no honor in the way he fought or treated his men. But every time Hotaru was reminded of this he would laugh at them say that they were his toys and that he could use them how he pleased.

Hotaru and his soldiers were surrounded as the turtles surround them, Casey, April, and Splinter stayed in back incase Hotaru tried something.

"You think you could stop us. Well you didn't account to one thing." Hotaru said.

"What the hell do you mean?" Raph yelled back.

"Never once did you why we were fighting so poorly. Maybe you should have asked yourselves is Hotaru just distracting us so that his other soldier have enough time to grab Shadow right from under their noses." Hotaru mocked.

The turtles gripped their weapons tighter.

"Your lying Shadow is well hidden and you'll never find her." April stated.

Hotaru cocked his head to the side saying, "So she isn't staying underground in that abandoned garage near the tram to Coney Island."

* * *

Everyone backed away from Hotaru with a shocked face, breaking into a cold sweat everyone bolted away from the battle and started sprinting back to the lair. Hotaru was smirking under his mask knowing that even though he knew where Shadow was stay didn't mean he could get to her but he didn't have to anything but just state the facts he had and let fear do the rest. When everyone was about to jump off the ledge did the whole edge lit up and electrify everyone. Hotaru started to laugh and mock everyone as they yelled out in pain as the electricity coursed through their bodies.

"Just as I thought, your demise is all because of Shadow and your fear. I told you earlier that Shadow would be cause of your death and this proves it. As everyone was slowly being brought into unconscious Hotaru knelt down and whispered into Raph's ear saying

"I knew all of this would happen that's why I set one of my toys to go play with her. While watching Shadow I knew all of the places you would go to so I just had my men setup my little trap earlier and waited until you broke out into a rage. Just go and blame yourself for leading your family and friends into this. But all you have to is push this all onto the shoulder of Shadow because this is all her fault when she befriended you freaks. Now die with her."

This was all Raph could hear before he fell into unconscious. Hotaru radioed in the rest of his men to help move the Hamato family and their friends to their headquarters. Hotaru on the other hand made sure to leave a clear message for Shadow to find when her family doesn't return in to her.

Removing the mask he was wear Hotaru had one brown eye on his right side while the left side was pale with a slash mark diagonally a crossed his forehead to his ear. Another cut mark was on his lip to his chin. Hotaru had sleek black hair gelled back and smile that would make soldier's break out into a cold sweat.

Hotaru placed his mask on the ground and took out a cloth draped object and placed it underneath the mask. Taking out a small knife Hotaru stuck the blade into his index finger and started to write out a small message for Shadow.

"Master it's time to depart."

Hotaru turned around to see one of the few soldiers that lived through the massacre was standing behind him. Hotaru stood up and cocked his head to the side asking

"What did you say?"

The soldier stood up straighter and started to repeat what he stated before.

"I said Master it's time to-" But before the soldier could finish Hotaru used he used to prick his finger to embed it into the soldier's neck. The soldier fell to the ground, gargling blood and clenching his throat as blood flooded out of his body and onto the ground. Hotaru stepped over the soldier's body and without turning around told the soldier,

"You annoy me with your presence."

Leaving the soldier to die Hotaru jumped off the pillar and relayed to the boat waiting for him at the bottom.

The soldier watched as the person he referred to Master disappear over the edge. Turning his head back to the mask and the message the last thing the soldier saw was the demonic mask staring back at him and the message to Shadow read,

_Karma's a Bitch_

_You took what I loved away from me so I'm doing the same_

* * *

**A.N:**

**Hotaru - Darkness and Despair **


	11. Chapter 11: It Ends Today

Chapter 11:

Shadow woke up like normal the next day but as she was getting ready to leave her room she could tell that something was wrong. Opening her door Shadow walked out into the lair and closed her eyes.

_Something is wrong, why is it so quiet? _

Usually in the morning Shadow could hear the sounds of snoring coming from Raph, Don, and Mikey's rooms and when it came to Leo he was getting ready to practice his katas while Splinter was getting the water boiling for their morning tea.

Shadow rushed around the lair looking everywhere for her family.

_This isn't right_

Panicking a bit Shadow quickly checked her shell cell to see if they called.

_Nothing_

Shadow quickly changed out of her workout clothes and into her everyday wear. Feeding Haku and leaving him some extra encase she didn't return Shadow ran out of the lair and up the elevator.

Shadow road the elevator to the top, reaching the streets of New York Shadow grabbed her bike and drove it April's apartment.

When Shadow arrived at the apartment she quickly hide her bike under the fire escape to her apartment and started climbing until she was greeted with her window. Shadow peered into the apartment through the glass.

There was no signs of life.

Shadow slowly undid the lock to the window and the alarm Donnie installed.

"April?" Shadow said. Removing her helmet Shadow placed it under her arm and looked around the apartment.

From the look of the apartment it seemed like no one has touched the place since last night. Even the store underneath was in no condition to be opened for business under April's strict eye.

Shadow tried to remember where everyone would be but nothing came to her. An eerie silent flowed through the room until the sound of a phone rung through the apartment. Shadow quickly scambled for her shell cell to find out it was the wrong phone. Shaking her head side to side Shadow move to the phone she used to work. Looking at the caller id Shadow deeply sighed before answering.

An angry voice filled Shadow's ears when she answered,

"Hamato where the fuck are you?"

Shadow pinched her furrowed brow and answered,

"Sir today is my day off." But that answer didn't please the angry man on the other line.

"I don't give a fuck if you have a day off or not you have to come in now or you can kiss your job goodbye."

At the time Shadow really didn't care if she lost her job or not, finding her family and friends was the only thing she cared about but she also knew that April and Casey worked extremely hard for her to find a job that would be willing to hire someone under the working age plus she couldn't really look for clues in board daylight.

"Yes sir it was my fault I will come in immediately." Shadow answered.

"Oh, that's good get here as soon and come find me when you do." The sound of the other end clicking signaled for Shadow to return the phone to her pocket.

_I guess he didn't think I would agree_

Shadow shook her head placing the helmet back on her head Shadow returned to her bike and started to drive to her place of work.

* * *

Shadow arrived at her place of work and placed her bike behind the building. Shadow didn't tell her family where she got a job but as long as she came home in one piece they didn't ask.

Walking into the building, Shadow took out a badge she hid in the inside of her pocket and showed it to the security guard. Nodding heads Shadow placed the badge clip on the front of her jacket and grabbed the nearest elevator to the 5th floor.

When the elevator opened Shadow walked into the foyer and was greeted with her coworkers huddled around in a circle in the middle of the room.

"Hey Shadow you got called in too?"

"Hey Daichi yeah just when I thought I had a break." Shadow jokingly said.

Daichi was 5 ft. 8in, 15 year boy with a fine face and fiery grey eyes. He had short black hair with his bangs flowing to the right of his face and two silver earrings in his left. He was wearing a white graphic shirt, stone blue jeans, and blue grey sneakers with a silver watch on his left wrist.

To his left was the Kenshi a 5ft 6in, 13 year old with chiseled face and dark brown eyes. He had short black hair and brown highlights with both his ears pierced with silver gold earrings. Wearing a brown leather jacket and white V-neck t-shirt and silver dog tags hanging on his neck. Black baggy jeans and all black sneakers he was tapping his foot on the ground with a very annoyed face.

"I can't believe he called us in on our day off. We get one day off and he has to take it away because of what stupid reason."

Kenshi was annoyed but the others jumped up to stop him.

One was Ren a boy that was the same age as Kenshi but two inches shorter with a thin face and blue eyes. While Ren's hair was originally brown he lost a bet during the week and had to dye it blonde. Ren had jagged short hair and a small gold hooped earring in his left ear. Wearing a graphic red shirt with dark blue jeans that were on the verge of falling off if not for the belt tightly fasten around his waist and blue and white sneakers was trying to calm down an angry Kenshi with the help of his brother Aaron.

Aaron also had a thin face and short brown hair but he had brown eyes and no piercings. He had a white V-neck shirt with blue stone jeans with his black blazer tied around his waist and worn black work boots. Aaron stepped in between his brother and Kenshi yelling

"Calm down Kenshi we all are pissed off but blowing up and throwing a tantrum like a five year old won't make it any better so sit you ass down and shut up already."

Kenshi huffed and puff but followed Aaron's directions. Being both the oldest and tallest out of merry group helped with Kenshi got mad. Aaron was 17 and just peaked at 6ft was almost like the leader but we all knew that he was the most carefree and childlike out of all of them.

Shadow smile and shook her head being with the group of misfits gave her the same calmness as it did with her family. At the beginning Shadow was very wary of them and wouldn't talk to them unless she had to. But after a while Shadow started to open up and started to have fun and even laughed with them. Now after a year Shadow saw them as people she could trust even though they were humans they earned her trust.

Shadow walked over to the group before turning around to see the reason why they were all there.

Mr. Satoshi was a grumpy old man in his late 50s he walked into the room leaning heavily on his cane. He was a dignified man but very stern when it came down to work people thought that the knitted brow and fiery green eyes was his natural look.

"Alright you idiot I bet you're all asking why I called you in and you know what I'll give you an answer."

Shadow and her friends may have looked like they were paying attention but were all mentally rolling their eyes.

"Two days ago you lot worked on that set for the new theater that's opening next week. Well, I got a call from the theater manger saying now he wants to change the entire set from a village to and underground carven. Now I tried to negotiate out of doing this but the manger will not bug on it so now you lot have to now redo the entire set by tomorrow."

"WHAT!" Everyone exclaimed.

Everyone was extremely pissed about what happened they all worked hard on the original set for three weeks now the manager of the theater was calling off the set and making them change everything. Even though everyone knew it wasn't Satoshi fault they wished he could have tried to at least get them more time to work on the set.

Satoshi breathed out heavily he knew that it wasn't possible for them to redo the entire set even if they all worked overtime and taking out his aggression on Shadow and her friends wasn't helping.

"Let me make a phone call to see if I can negotiate something out of this ass. You lot start planning on what you're going to do while I'm gone." Satoshi said taking out his phone and walking out the door.

Kenshi started ranting about what just happened while Ren once again tried to calm him down. Shadow and Daichi left to grab some books and sketch pads to start working because they knew all the moaning and yelling coming from Kenshi wasn't going to make the problem leave. Aaron on the other hand was watching his brother and waiting for Daichi and Shadow to return, Aaron could do much because he strain muscles in his back and had to sit out on lifting heavy things.

After an hour of planning and reading books on underground cities and cravens Satoshi returned looking depleted of all energy.

"Well do you want to hear the good news or the bad?" Satoshi said with a heavy sigh.

"Just talk" Kenshi spat. Shadow reached over and did want Raph taught her to do when Mikey says something stupid and slapped him on the back of the head.

"Hey" Kenshi yelled rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't be a baby Kenshi it was a light tap." Shadow stated. "What's the news Satoshi?"

"You guys better get me a good present for my birthday next month because I was able to get the guy to not change the entire set but a small part at the end. Now you guys still have to create something for the underground carven but at least it's not the entire set. Now if you excuse me I have to make more phone calls to make up the money for this." And with that Satoshi left with his head held high and skip in his step but if you looked at him closer you could tell he worked hard to get the manager of the theater to change his mind.

"I'll right guys Satoshi worked hard to get us out of that jam now it's our turn to return the favor." Aaron said.

From ten in the morning until eight at night with a lunch break at three and dinner break at seven everyone was able to complete the set. At the end the set looked like a snapshot taken from the plot of Phantom of the Opera where the Phantom arrives in his underground lair under the opera house.

* * *

Everyone parted ways when they exited the building, Daichi left to go home, Kenshi wanted to live the rest of the day and went to visit his girlfriend while Ren and Aaron went left to visit their parents at the hospital. Shadow on the other hand had the whole day to think about what happened to her family and friends. While placing the worse thing in the back of her mind Shadow ran to her bike and rode it to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Shadow hid her bike near the bridge before using the shadows of the night to climb the bridge to the top of the pillar.

Using her powers Shadow scanned the pillar for any sign of life or anything that could show where her family and friends where.

_What the hell_

Shadow focused to see something slumped over on the adjacent pillar. Using the connecting ropes to each pillar Shadow crossed to the other side only to sink to her knees when she arrived.

The body with a knife sticking out of his neck with his eyes glassy and wide open staring at the sky. The blood from the body formed a puddle under the body but what got to Shadow the most was the mask. Shadow tried to stand up but her knees quickly gave out from under her, her breathing was labored and heavy but she needed to know.

Normally it would have taken Shadow just moment to walk over to the mask but at that moment it took her ten minutes to crawl over to the mask. Shadow looked down to the cloth draped object. Slowly removing the cloth Shadow gasped at the object before quickly crawling over to the edge of the pillar where the water met the bridge and threw up.

Clammy and pale Shadow crawled back over to the mask and took the object into her hand. A knife with dried blood flaking off the blade stared back at her. The object was enough to tell her who this was but the message and mask confirmed it.

Yasha is back. Though at the time Shadow didn't know that it wasn't Yasha but it didn't matter to her. Her family and friends were taken and it was all her fault.

Shadow gulped before throwing the knife to the ground. As the knife embedded itself into the ground Shadow rested her head into her hands rubbing her left hand over the left side of her face asking herself why, why did this have to happen?

But there was no time to worry or blame Shadow quickly gathered herself before running and jumping off the bridge.

_Humans only see what they want to see _

Without a care in the world Shadow leap off the pillar and onto the sideway of the bridge. Bolting as soon as she touched the ground Shadow grabbed her bike and drove it back to the lair at break neck speed.

Shadow threw the bike on the ground and road the elevator down. It may have taken moments to get down to the lair but to Shadow it seemed like eternity. Shadow ran pass the drowsy Haku and without a second glance Shadow started to take out the armor that Don and her made. Removing the clothes she was wearing and replaced it with tight fitting all black shirt with long sleeves and neck and pants.

Shadow was about to start to change into her armor when a thought came to her.

_I may not get out of this alive_

Shadow looked down at Haku who was upset and whimpering at Shadow. Shadow bent down and stroked Haku's head.

"Sorry Haku but this needs to end." Shadow whispered before placing Haku in his bed and stroking his head until he fell to sleep.

Shadow stood up and walked over to her laptop, turning it on Shadow started to type out a message to her family and friends in the event of her death.

* * *

The message replayed in her head as she started to gather her armor and weapons.

_To whom it concerns:_

_Today I write so that those who find this will understand my choices in the event of my death. Please don't blame yourselves if this comes true, it was my choice to give my life to the only reasons why I still walk this earth._

Shadow placed the armor she made with Donnie and attached everything carefully on her body. Turning herself towards the mirror Shadow slowly placed the glasses Donnie had to fix after they found her beaten and batter from her encounter with Hotaru's soldiers.

_Never forget I'll always love you and that would never change even in death, my brothers. To understand why I choice to give my life up tonight for you, let me retell the tale of how our paths crossed that one faithful night. _

Looking at the swords she made with Leo and the ones she made with the Ancient One and the Ninja Tribunal. Carefully choosing her weapons Shadow decided to take the ones she made with the Ancient One rather than tainting the ones she made with Leo. This battle would show her family what she was truly capable of doing and she didn't want to bring the Hamato name through the mud. The only thing she did take of the Hamato family was a spare picture of everyone she would take out and unfold repeatedly when she needed their strength. With her swords on her waist and back Shadow grabbed her kunais and shurkiens and stabbed them to the holsters on her leg and a med kit on the back of her waist.

_My name is Shadow Hatake Hamato and this is a story about how my life changed when I met four unique individuals that I can proudly call my brothers; Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Along with our father, Splinter, I hope that what I write will give your guys peace of mind that if I were to perish in this battle is that I did it with the mindset that my life is meaningless compared to your lives. _

Looking over everything Shadow said her final goodbyes to Haku and left the lair. Running to an abandon open field Shadow scan the area for any signs of life before continuing with her plan to get to Japan.

_I could never again live in the darkness that I once lived in without you guys. Forgive me for my selfish actions but just as I stated before my life is nothing and I am here to protect those I love and care about. _

"I need your strength by the Order of the Orichalcos I summon you here aid me in my quest and forget me for my soul will now hold no purity and that your power will leave me. But I will not stop until they are free and this world is rid of the demon.

I call upon your power Saphira."

Shadow shouted in the air before slamming her hands into the ground. Shadow's eyes changed from amber to cat eye and gold reveling that her powers were now activated and ready for battle

The Orichalcos seal appear under Shadow. It was a six pointed star encased by a circle with an ancient language imprinted on it. The middle of the star had a smaller circle with a depiction of a dragon's head.

Saphira a gigantic dragon with dark blue scales and blue cat eye eyes flew out of the seal and landed in front of Shadow.

'_I know why you called me human but do you know the consequences of this?'_ Saphira said. Though all of this was through telekinesis so that no one could hear them speak.

'_Yes I know my life will be shorten and I could die at any moment but this is worse than any death. My life is meaningless compared to them. I will risk everything just so there safe. To my dying breath no even if the Reaper himself comes to take my soul to hell I will save them.'_ Shadow shouted.

Saphira looked into Shadow's eyes and could see a spark that was once lost burning fierily in her eyes. There was no turning back now, Saphira bowed her head and Shadow took that as a sign. Tying her swords tighter to her body and the ones on her back Shadow signaled for Saphira to fly.

Saphira flapped her wings and soared into the air. Flying away from New York Saphira started to ask questions to Shadow.

'_So where are we going?'_ Saphira asked.

'_Japan'_ Shadow said.

'_I know that but I need to know the specific place.'_ Saphira demanded

'_Fukuoka. We were held in Fukuoka along the border to the sea near Hiroshima.'_ Shadow said.

'_How do you know?'_ Saphira asked.

'_It took me some time but I remember how long it took me to find the Ancient One and the village he found me in. After calculating the distance from the village entrance to any place big enough and in an area where no one would go to I found a large abandoned facility that was once used for research in the 70s before it was abandoned because of funds.'_ Shadow stated.

'Really' Saphira asked sounding shocked at Shadow's explanation.

'No, I placed a GPS in the wall while I was still there encase I need to go back there because of Yasha. I just never thought I would really need to.' Shadow said looking down at her watch.

Saphira decided not to ask any more questions and flew to Fukuoka, Japan in silence while Shadow mediated and readied herself for the battle.

_Goodbye my one and only family_

* * *

Saphira landed twenty yards away from the facility, while Saphira disappeared back into the seal Shadow stood in the shadows and watched as trucks drove in and out. Shadow focused her eyes into the building to get the layout and how many people were there.

Over two hundred heavily armed soldiers were in the building but that didn't matter to Shadow. Shadow looked into the ground but her eyes couldn't see past all the layers of earth to see where everyone was being held.

_Crap looks like I have to do this the old fashion way_

Shadow took off her gloves and place her hands on the ground, focusing her mind Shadow used her abilities with the earth to look into the underground facility.

_There you are_

Shadow finally found the Hamato family, Casey, and April twenty feet under the earth but what disgusted Shadow the most was that they were being held in the same exact cell that we grew up in and lost her friends.

_This will end today_

Shadow grabbed the middle size sword on her waist and pointed the blade behind her, taking the mask April, Casey, and Splinter made for her and placed it over her face and the glasses Donnie made for her.

_In 3…2…1_

At the same time everyone was waking up from there encounter with the electric fence. Groaning and holding their heads everyone looked around to their unfamiliar surroundings. They were stripped of their weapons with their hands cuffed in front of them.

"Where the hell are we?" Raph said.

"Um….guys I think I know who this place." Donnie said pointing his cuffed hands at the wall behind them.

Through the blinking fluorescent light above them everyone looked with wide eyes.

"Dear God" April whispered.

The wall read the oath of the Imperial Dragons and the names of the lives lost in the hell hole they were thrown in.

"So you finally wake up."

Everyone turned to see Hotaru sitting in front of a wall of screens used to monitor the building and grounds. Without his mask on everyone could see that he was no more than 13 making him the same age as Shadow. But when you looked into his one good eye there was nothing but cold darkness with no remorse for life.

"You ask why I brought you here well I thought that the finally battle should be held where it all began now if you excuse me spectators I'm waiting for my opponent." Hotaru said before turning his attention back to the monitors.

"What ta fuck does he mean?" Casey demanded.

But in just a few seconds his question was answered. A big bang and the building shaking alarmed everyone to the monitors. Everyone watched as all the screens focused on the hole in the wall and a shadowy smoky figure stepping into the building.

"Finally it ends today." Hotaru said leaning back in his chair.


	12. Chapter 12: Goodbye

Chapter 12:

Shadow stood in front of the hole in the wall alarms were blaring throughout the facility alerting to everyone of an enemy but Shadow didn't care all she wanted to do was get her friends and family out even if it cost her life.

Armed guards charged at Shadow with their weapons pointed at her, from swords to guns they were not going to take any chance when it came to her but Shadow just stared at everyone and watched as they ran too her like bees to flowers. Shadow smirked under her mask before pressing the buttons on her glasses to help her see where soldiers were hidden and how many floors were left before she got to her family and friends.

Shadow to a deep breath before whispering to herself,

_Let's do this_

Shadow grasped her sword in her right and focused her concentration into her left hand. She watched in the corner of her eye until finally a ball of electricity formed and bolts of the electricity flowed through her hand and covered her forearm. Shadow peered back to the incoming fleet of soldiers jumping down from the hole Shadow started to take on the waves of soldiers that continued to fight her.

Slashing with the sword in her right hand and using the electricity in her left hand everyone that ran into Shadow was either stabbed or sliced by her sword or electrocuted to death. Blood covered the walls, floor, ceiling and Shadow as she raced down the long brightly lit hallways and entered each room to kill anyone and everyone in them. Shadow didn't let anyone leave that floor alive and made sure that there was no signs of life with both her eyes and glasses before jumping down to the next floor.

This process continued as Shadow battled her way to the depths of facility. As Shadow got deeper into the facility Shadow switched her blades to the ones on her back but continued to us her powers. Since she was deep enough in the earth she would slash the walls and jump kick away from the wall waiting for a good amount of soldiers to arrive at the wall before commanding the wall to collapse and the earth to bury the soldiers alive or to crush them to death. Shadow even removed her mask to take a deep breath and blow out a large flame at the soldiers.

Shadow didn't waste her time and would wall jump over the dead bodies or the soldiers that were near death and were moaning and crying out in pain. Shadow grew up in this type of environment so nothing fazed her. Panting heavily and wiping the sweat from her brow Shadow continued to massacre everyone until she finally made it to the finally floor with her family.

Shadow took off her mask and placed it in her bag, taking the swords on her back and tighten her grip on the handles. Shadow looked at herself in the reflection of the metal doors, blood was spatter all across herself and on her face. The blood on her face dripped off and cascade down to the floor. Breathing heavily Shadow first check that her family and friends weren't by the door. Everyone was to the side of the room so Shadow took that as a sign and jumped kicked the door off the hinges. The door flew off and landed 15 feet away from the door, Shadow landed on top of the door and looked around for everyone.

_Thank God I found you guys_

* * *

Shadow turned to the person hiding in the shadows clapping their hands.

"Well, well Shadow Hatake daughter of Sado and Yuri Hatake you have finally returned home. Care to give me a hug?"

Shadow could feel her blood boiling but didn't have the same fear she had to Yasha, this was worse.

"Who the hell are you, where's Yasha?" Shadow demanded.

"Sorry but father will not be joining us today, he's a little under the weather."

The person Shadow was talking too walked out into the light.

"I am Hotaru son of Yasha. You will die here and when you do I will kill your family and friends slowly like my father did to you freaks all those years ago."

Hotaru pointed to the screens on the wall showing Shadow that he was watching her the moment she arrived to when she breached and killed everyone that was above them. Hotaru then pointed at the area with everyone in it.

Clapping his hands the light in the cell turned on. Shadow watched as the lights in the cell turned on to show her family and friends cuffed and sitting in the cell.

"Guys!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow ran over to everyone but stopped when she saw the look on their eyes.

_Fear_

They were all trying not to show it but she could tell that they all were scared of her and feared her. Shadow looked deeper into the cell to see it was the same exact one that she was forced to live in and have all her friends die in.

"What did you do?" Shadow yelled out turning her attention back to Hotaru.

Hotaru smirked, "I did not, and this is all you. Now they know what you truly are."

Hotaru gestured to the screens and replayed parts of the massacre upstairs.

_No_

Shadow turned her attention to and from the screens to her family with wide eyes. With each cry from the soldiers or battle roar from Shadow everyone was cringing. Hearing people die was one thing but watching it and then knowing the person responsible made everything worse. The one thing Shadow didn't want to happen happened. Now they all knew that what she could do if she was pushed too far. No one made eye contact or looked in her direction.

Mikey had his back turned and was hiding behind his father, Don was trying to look up at Shadow but every time he tried to look at her his eyes fell to the concrete floor. Casey was trying to be strong but even couldn't look at Shadow and kept his focus on April who buried her face in his chest. Raph stared at the wall without even attempting to look at Shadow and even Leo and Splinter kept their eyes to the ground.

Shadow placed her swords back into their sleeves on her back, took off her glasses, and reverted her eyes back to normal.

"Please just look at me." Shadow pleaded. Grasping the bars to the cell between her fingers she pressed her forehead into the gap between the bars and pleaded again with her family and friends.

"Just look at me even if it's just for a second."

No one looked at Shadow because the memories of what happened were all too fresh in their minds. Mikey was the only one that looked up at Shadow and he made a shocked response.

"Shadow?"

Everyone turned to look at Shadow and their once fear of her disappeared to sadness. Tears flowed from Shadow's eyes and off her face to the ground. The blood that was on her face was slowly running off with her tears.

Shadow wasn't looking up at the time to see everyone was looking at her with regret on their face. Shadow placed her glasses back on to cover the nothingness in her eyes now before turning her attention back to Hotaru.

"What do you want?" Shadow asked turning away from everyone.

"Your death." Hotaru said.

Hotaru had cold dead eyes that only came from years of nothing but death. They were the same as Shadow's but for her she still had a small spark of love that she got from her family and friends. But the moment she saw fear in their eyes from her that all changed.

"Fine" Shadow said.

Walking over to Hotaru.

"Shadow don't" Mikey yelled out

"You can't do this you need to fight." Raph added.

But Shadow didn't hear them, all she could do was walk to Hotaru. He took out a knife from behind him and pointed at Shadow's throat.

Shadow continued to come closer and closer to Hotaru until the blade nicked her throat a bit and embedded a small amount of the blade in her throat. It wasn't it enough to kill her or cause her any real damage but she didn't care and this made Hotaru smile.

Whenever Hotaru did this to one of his men they would run in fear and coward in a corner before he killed them without a second thought. Shadow on the other hand didn't hesitate or move away from the blade. She just kept moving even as the blade started to embed itself in her neck.

"Good. Let's go." Hotaru said walking out of the room into the hallway that lead to the arena.

Shadow nodded and without turning back or hearing the cries of her family and friends pleading for her to not go she left them.

Shadow swore to herself that she would protect her family and friends from anyone that included herself. When Shadow saw the fear in their eyes and the way they treated her differently she knew that she made the right choice to go with Hotaru and die in the same place where everyone else from the Imperial Dragons did.

* * *

Shadow didn't know that Hotaru had arranged a way for the Hamato family and friends to watch in person from the box seat of the fight. They were freed of their cuffs but stuck in a cage that was made of one way mirrors. Raph and Leo tried to break out the glass was reinforced with 3 in tempered glass an only either enough force or something to cut the glass so that the stress would be on one point and then they could break it. While the turtles and Casey tried to find a way to get out of the glass case April and Splinter had their attention on the arena.

The arena was still an earth terrain with boulders and rocks scattered around. But the sad part was the areas on the ground and walls with blood spatter and pools of blood from past fights in the arena. Time stopped in the arena and after years trying to stay away from it Shadow was returning back to the hell hole and into the fire.

Hotaru and Shadow both arrived in the arena Shadow stood by the door they just entered while Hotaru walked over to the other side.

"Are you ready?" Hotaru asked grabbing the knives in his back pocket.

Shadow nodded and grab both her swords. They both took their stance and readied for one of them to make the first move.

In a drop of a pin Hotaru and Shadow both clashed. Metal on metal they both sliced and dodged each other blades. There was only a few moments when they both were able to make contact with their blades but they were all superficial wounds. Shadow had a small cut on her cheek with blood flowing down her cheek and one on her right arm. Hotaru had a small nick on his neck and one on his right arm.

Hotaru was laughing saying,

"No one has ever come close to hurting him and that's what exciting about this battle."

Pointing at the scar over his eye he asked Shadow,

"Do you know how I got this?"

Shadow shook her head but she got a bad feeling about it.

"My father gave it to me when I was created. He wanted me to share the same pain that he was going through so he took my vision away from me as you did to him."

"What do you mean created?" Shadow asked.

Hotaru's shoulders were shaking as he tried to keep his laughter in.

"My father created me here, I was made from the blood of those who lost their lives here. Get the picture?" Hotaru pointed at his head.

Shadow was visibly shaken over this news but that still didn't explain his birth.

"How about this, father found a poor woman in the village near here and promised to take her away from that life only to take her in and make her his toy. After she found out she was pregnant with me she tried to kill herself so that she wouldn't have to carry father's child. Father caught her just in time and chained her to a bed where she laid for the nine months until I was born. Father gave her the nutrients to give me life and when I was born he casted the whore aside. He took my blood and would circulate the blood of all of those freaks that lost their lives here into my body. But nothing happened and father blamed me for it. After training under him for year and being abused I took the knife that took both our sights and stabbed him with it. I killed my father and took over the second he breathed out his last bloody breath. Now you will suffer the same fate. It's all your fault that father never loved me I will kill you and prove to him I am a great son and he should have appreciated me and worshiped me." Hotaru yelled. Hotaru used the shock from his origin against Shadow and attacked her.

Shadow was able to dodge the first attack but was pinned under Hotaru. Hotaru took one of his knives and stabbed Shadow in the left shoulder.

"ARGH!" Shadow cried. Hotaru took the sword out of her left hand and placed her palm facing up and asked,

"So you still want to protect those that fear you? Do you still love them?"

Shadow looked up at the glass cage outside the arena and used her eyes to see into it. Throw the glass she could see the worry on their face and fear but this fear was different from before now. They didn't fear her but they feared losing her.

"Yeah I still love them with all my heart and there is nothing you could do to stop me." Shadow said glaring Hotaru in the eye.

Hotaru shrugged his shoulders said "Wrong answer"

Hotaru took a knife out and impaled Shadow's left hand into the ground until the hilt hit her the skin of her hand.

"ARGH!"

"You should have been selfish now look what did." Hotaru whispered into Shadow's ear.

Shadow was breathing heavily trying to free her hand but the sharp pains of her hand and her shoulder kept her pinned down to the ground.

"Now I have to go play with my other toys and have you watch as I break them." Hotaru said as he was getting off Shadow. Hotaru took Shadow's swords and threw them to the other side of the arena leaving the one he took from her when he stabbed her hand earlier.

Shadow watched helplessly was Hotaru took her sword in hand and started walking over to the edge of the arena towards the glass cage with everyone in it.

_Don't you dare go near them!_

Shadow reach over to the blade in her shoulder taking a deep breath Shadow pulled the knife out of her shoulder. Blood poured out of her shoulder down her arm and pooled under her. Taking the knife Shadow through the knife at Hotaru it impaled itself into his back. Hotaru fell to the ground and moved his hands around searching for the blade.

Shadow took this as her last chance and got up on one knee grabbing her left wrist Shadow pulled with all her strength her hand out of the ground with the knife still embedded in her hand. The blade was pointing outside the top of her hand with blood dripping off the tip.

Shadow panted heavily as Hotaru was able to find the knife she threw at his and pulled it out. Throwing it to the side Hotaru was now enraged at her. Charging at her Shadow took the knife that was still in her hand and her locket into her mouth and clenched down on the metal as she pulled the knife out.

"YOU WILL NOT!"

Shadow shouted taking the knife she just pulled out and gripped the bloody handle tightly in her right hand Shadow's eyes were gold and cat eye filled with rage and adrenaline. Shadow charging at Hotaru they both clashed with Shadow's sword and Hotaru knife.

Hotaru and Shadow both held their ground as their blades clashed with each other. Jumping away from each other Shadow's vision started to blur and get fuzzy the blood lost was starting to get to her but she didn't give up. Hotaru on the other hand looked like he was perfectly fine he charged at Shadow once again and as Shadow's energy depleted Hotaru's increased.

Hotaru was able to throw Shadow into the ground and as a last effort to rid himself of the vain of his existence took Shadow's sword and stabbed her in the chest and towards her heart.

Hotaru cocked his head when he removed the blade looking down he saw that Shadow stabbed him in the stomach. Hotaru winced as he started to remove the blade from his stomach and throw it away. Hotaru stared at the blank expression on Shadow's face, her hands were clenched and stretched out to her sides.

Not understanding what was wrong with what he did Hotaru took his last knife out of the holder on his leg and started walking over to the glass cage.

Shadow on the other hand was coughing up blood now registering what happened to her. Looking over to her side she could see the blade of darkness she created with the Ancient One just in her grasp. Shadow through painful breaths and waves of pain throughout her body grasped the handle of the blade and pointed the tip at Hotaru.

_This is it_

Shadow gathered the last of her strength to stand up. Wobbling in place Shadow stood up pointing the blade at Hotaru Shadow charged him.

Hotaru turn around just as Shadow was able to stab him. Hotaru took the knife in his hand and as both bodies came in contact with each other Shadow stabbed Hotaru in the heart and twisted the handle of the blade as it entered Hotaru's body. Hotaru last act against Shadow was to leave the knife he was going to use on her friends and family and stab her in the lung.

Hotaru and Shadow both fell on top of each other. Shadow rolled off Hotaru and they both stared at each other.

Hotaru died still curing Shadow and her family as the reasons why his life was terrible.

Shadow closed her eyes but with each breath it was like she swallowed an ice pick. Shadow looked at the knife that was still impaled in her chest the moment she removed it blood would fill her throat and slowly kill her. On the other hand if she didn't remove it how was she going to get her family out and die at the same time.

* * *

Shadow looked at the glass cage and even without her eyes changed she could see that they were trouble over what happened and were crying tears. Still Shadow could only think that their lives would be better without her. Without a second thought with both hands Shadow pulled the knife out, standing up and wobbling Shadow aimed the knife at the glass cage. Her vision blurry and going dark Shadow threw with all her might at the glass cage.

The blade now in embedded in the glass and causing stress cracks Shadow fell to the ground on her stomach with her vision how darkening and blood starting to accumulating in her throat. Shadow started coughing blood onto the ground. The sound of glass breaking her name being called out filled her ears but she was too weak to get up or to response.

Slowly Shadow started closing her eyes, blurred figures ran over to her calling out her name but still Shadow didn't response. Shadow could feel her body being lifted and small drops on her cheek rolling off onto her chest.

Another coughing fit Shadow tried to focus her vision to see who it was but nothing. Shadow reach out with her left hand and asked,

"W-who?"

The blurred figure grasped her hand tightly in his own and pulled it to his chest and said,

"Shadow it's me Leo you need to foucs on my voice."

Shadow smirked.

You're here

"Shadow keep your eyes opened and talk to me. Don's here and we're going to get you home." Leo said.

Leo was trying not to panic as Don had the turtles take off their gear and wrap it around Shadow. They all knew they had to get her out of there and into a hospital but what place would take her without asking questions.

"My cousin is a doctor if I call him and explain things to him he might be able to get Shadow emitted under a false name and we just have to say it a gang attacked her. What's the situation with her eyes?" April asked.

Leo peered into Shadow's eyes.

"We're good there just amber." Leo stated.

"But how are we going to get back to New York she won't make the trip." Raph said.

No one knew the answer and slowly Shadow started to once again shut her eyes.

* * *

Everyone shouted at Shadow to keep them open but their voices could no longer reach her ears. Shadow slowly succumbed to the darkness around her. Leaving herself to the darkness a voice made Shadow turn around with wide eyes.

"Shadow?"

"M-mom d-dad?"


	13. Chapter 13: A New Purpose

Chapter 13

Shadow turned around to see both of her mother and father standing behind her with their hands clasped together. Neither of them looked like they were killed the night Shadow's life changed. Shadow slowly reached out with a shaking hand towards them but stopped short and pulled her hand back. Turning it over Shadow looked down to discover she was changed back to being a five year old.

"What the hell?" Shadow whispered.

"Shadow you need to let go." Yuri said.

Shadow looked at them with a confused face.

_What do you mean let go_

"Shadow its time for us to be a family again." Sado added.

Deep in the back of Shadow's head she could faintly hear

_Breathe_

Looking back at her parents they reached out a hand towards her saying.

"Sweetheart you have been fighting so long its time." Sado said.

"Come on isn't this what you always wanted?" Yuri asked.

_Breathe_

The sound was getting a bit louder but still Shadow couldn't understand what that meant.

"I don't get it aren't I dead?" Shadow asked.

Yuri and Sado shrugged their shoulders and looked at each other. Shadow was getting more and more confused with their constant let go and come with them talk. Never once did her parents ever say something like this. The last time they ever spoke was when they told her to find something to live for.

"You're not my parents." Shadow stated.

Yuri and Sado looked at each other but smiled.

"Smart kid" Sado said.

Yuri and Sado morphed into a blob of darkness. Shadow instinctively for her sword but remembered she was five and had nothing at the time.

"Who are you?" Shadow demanded.

"No one to worry about child just remember who you really are" the creature responded.

_Breathe _

Shadow covered her ears with her hands the voice was getting stronger and louder but she still didn't understand what was happening.

"Who are you?" the creature asked.

"A monster" Shadow said.

"Who are you?" the creature asked once again.

"A cold hearted murder"

_Take a_-

The voice was covered up by the creatures question "Who are you?"

Shadow getting frustrated and her head pounding from the constant yelling from the voice yelled back,

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Shadow closed her eyes tightly trying to do what she did when she got too frustrated; blocked out the world until it disappeared.

"If you don't know who you are how can others know you" the creature asked.

Shadow opened her eyes and uncovered her ears. Looking back at the creature she whispered

"Yoshi?"

The creature transformed back into its true form; Hamato Yoshi.

Shadow learned of Yoshi through the Ancient One during her time with him. One day Yoshi came back to Japan for anniversary of Tang Shen's death. Shadow and Yoshi met and talked while he visited. Yoshi gave Shadow advice on what to do after the death of a love one. Both of them were still grieving but for Yoshi he seemed to be trying to hold something back. Yoshi asked Shadow who she was before he left to go back to New York. Shadow at the time didn't know and would just say "nothing". Yoshi bent down and rustled her hair leaving her with a big impact and a question she still hasn't found the answer to.

"_If you don't know who you are how can others know you"_

* * *

"Hello Shadow"

"What's going on Yoshi?" Shadow demanded.

Yoshi walked over to Shadow and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You're in limbo right now and you have to decide to either continue living for come with me to the other side."

Shadow's eyes moved rapidly back and forth.

"I'm dying?" Shadow asked.

Yoshi shook his head. "No your brothers and friends are trying to keep you alive. Listen"

Breathe

Take a breath

Shadow understood now what was going on the voice of Donnie yelling at her to breathe.

"But do I really deserve to live?" Shadow asked.

Looking down at her hands Shadow was thinking about all the blood that covered her hands over the years and all the lives she had taken.

"That's for you to decided Shadow I can't make that decision for you." Yoshi said.

The pounding sound must be the guys trying to restart her heart.

"Shadow you need to decide now." Yoshi said.

Shadow looked at him in the eyes. Yoshi could see a burning passion that was lost for years behind her eyes.

"Shadow who are you?" Yoshi asked.

Shadow smiled and said, "Shadow Hatake Hamato daughter of Yuri and Sado Hatake. Student and adopted daughter of Splinter Hamato and the Ancient One. Sister of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo Hamato."

Yoshi smiled as the world around us started disappearing saying

"You finally found who you are."

* * *

Shadow slowly opened her eyes to find herself somewhere she never thought she would return to the Ancient One's house. The doors to her room slide opened to reveal the Ancient One with a towel and wash basin. The Ancient One quickly ran over to Shadow and bent down to assess her. Shadow tried to sit up but a sharp pain from her chest ran through her body.

"Stay still cumquat you have been through a great ordeal and your body needs to rest."

The Ancient One helped Shadow drink some water for her throat.

"What happened?" Shadow asked.

The Ancient One told Shadow about what happened after she passed out from blood loss.

Everyone was beside themselves trying to save Shadow. Donnie was pumping her chest while ordering his brothers for their pads and belts to tie around her body to stop the bleeding. Raph was shouting for Shadow to breathe but nothing was happening. Everyone feared that they could lose Shadow that day but something happened.

The Ninja Tribunal came in disguise and stepped in to intervene. Protectively the turtles and their human friends were on the defensive of these creatures but Splinter stopped them. At the time Splinter didn't explain who they were because they weren't ready to know that kind of information but he said they could trust them. The Tribunal took her away to heal in their rejuvenating pond in the temple. Shadow was incased in ice capsule and lowered into the pool to heal her body. Shadow had to stay with the Tribunal for a month until they were satisfied with her recovery. After this the Ancient One took Shadow back to his home until she woke up. They never explained why they saved her nor did anyone ask. Shadow's armor was sent home with her family and friends.

"You have been missing for almost two months Shadow and I'm afraid you're going to apart for longer."

Shadow had to stay with the Ancient One for another month to finish recovering and moving her body. With no contact with anyone besides the Ancient One Shadow feared at times that her family believed her dead and they were starting to forget her. But the Ancient One reassured him that he was in contact with Splinter and they were waiting for her arrival.

* * *

The Ancient One explained the conversation he had the day she left and they reconciled both agreeing to stay in contact while she was living in New York. Parting ways Shadow jumped onto the next plane to New York. Shadow didn't call anyone to tell them she was returning but she had a good idea where everyone was.

Creeping into the sewers Shadow undid the security lock to the lair and enter through the cover of darkness. Everyone was distracted with Raph and Casey wrestling and arguing over from what Shadow could piece together the better wrestler. April and Splinter were watching from couch while the others were crowded around Raph and Casey beating each other on the ground.

Splinter's ears perked up and he raised a paw in the air.

"My sons I believe we have a visitor."

The boys stopped what they were doing immediately and stood in their fighter stance with their arms hovering over their weapons.

"Whoever you are its better to come now than for us to find you" Raph yelled.

Shadow rolled her eyes but gave up on the waiting game. Shadow walked out of the darkness and into the light. Everyone was shocked and dropped to the floor.

"What's wrong you haven't forgotten me already?" Shadow joked.

Before Shadow knew it she was on the ground with Mikey clinging to her like life depended on it. Some so could feel the extra weight on her other brothers on her and Casey.

"Um guys I think you're crushing me" Shadow stampeded out.

Everyone got off Shadow quickly but Mikey refused to let go. Raph and Donnie had to pry him off her so she could get up and walk over to Splinter and April. April threw her arms around Shadow and burst into tears sobbing on my shoulder.

"Welcome home Shadow." Splinter said placing a paw on my back

I looked around with April still on my shoulders to see everyone smiling at me. Some had tears in their eyes.

"Yeah it's good to be home." I answered.

I didn't have much of a memory of my recovery so I couldn't answer anything about it but everyone was happy that I was home. I had to leave for a bit to go to work and explain my absent but April and Casey made sure to call them to give me a leave of absent.

* * *

Leaving the lair threw the garage I got onto my bike and rode it until I arrived at work. I was about to go to into the building when the sound of fighting caught my attention. I peeked into the hallway between work and another building to see my coworkers arguing over something.

Daichi and Kenshi were arguing with Ren and Aaron about something that must have happened while I was gone. The argument was very heated but something changed during the fight. Kenshi took a knife out of his back pocket and threw it at Aaron. Shadow jumped out to stop him but what shocked about what happened. The knife was floating in the air just inches away from Aaron's face. Aaron took the knife and threw it with great force back at Kenshi. The blade impacted the ground an created a small crater in the ground. Kenshi jumped away and landed on the side of the building. Kenshi stood up on the side of the building with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh crap" Kenshi muttered.

The guys turned their attention to Shadow who was standing there dumbfounded at what just happened.

"Shadow it's not what you think-" Ren stampeded out.

But Shadow raised her hands in the air placing her left out in the air Shadow focused her powers into the palm of her hand until a ball of electricity formed and cascaded off onto her forehead.

"I'm just like you." Shadow said.

The guys looked at each other. Kenshi jumped down from the wall and nodded with the others. They nodded back and gestured for Shadow to follow.

* * *

Daichi explained that they were born with these gifts; Kenshi had telekinesis and was a telepath, Kenshi had great speed and agility and a vast knowledge of weapons, Ren was a genius with electronics and was a high ranking hacker under several alias, and Daichi was also able to use water and electricity like me at his own will. The place we were all working at was actually a front.

Mr. Satoshi was actually their handler and the place was their headquarters. The guys would work for the government behind the scenes solving problems that legally the government couldn't do. From kidnappings and ransoms to infiltrations and recon they were working to help better the country and their relations to others. But they did have one rule about work given to them; the person hiring them had to upfront and could not lie to them. If they tried to trick them not only would all contact be broken off but they would be exposed of their evil crimes.

They may be young but they were highly skilled and trained with weapons and hand to hand combat. Satoshi came out and the guys explained that I was just like them. Satoshi put me in the ring to prove that I was just like the others. From hand to hand combat to weapons and the use of powers I had them impressed.

"We would like to ask you to join our team and help bring those who escaped their underhanded legal ways to justice." Satoshi asked Shadow.

Shadow didn't understand at first but then got the idea after the guys turned and stared at her.

Shadow started thinking about her family and the problems they have and thought of an idea.

"Under one condition" Shadow said.

"Anything" Satoshi said.

"My family can't travel above ground because they are different like us. So I want the technology to make it so they can travel above ground and see the world like we do." Shadow stated.

Shadow explained that her family was a group of mutants living underground and they could only travel at night but they helped crime and keep the streets clean from Purple Dragons and the Foot.

"Fine but they can't know about this or your involvement." Sato said.

Shadow nodded.

"What's it called anyway" Shadow asked

The guys looked at each other and nodded.

* * *

Daichi stood up and said.

"The organization itself is called the Order of Dragons but we each called under the code name of a dragon. I'm Ryujin after the dragon god of the seas and ocean."

Ren stood up and said, "I'm Shenlong after the thunder god who controls weather."

"Fucanglong after the underworld guardian of metals and jewels" Kenshi stated.

"And I'm Shen after the shape shifting dragon that was believed to create mirages. Together we're the Imperial Dragons." Aaron said.

Shadow looked up at them and was shocked.

_Is this my second chance. Can I really do something with them?_

"So Shadow who are?" Daichi asked.

Shadow stood up straight and said, "I'm Zhulong creator of night and day."

Everyone nodded.

"Ok stand in attention in front of me."

Shadow and the guys quickly stood in front of Satoshi with their heads raised high and their arms behind them.

"Starting from today Shadow is a part of team so let's get her ready and in the system because we're starting in a few days get ready because there's no turning back."

Satoshi shuffled his feet together and pressed his right hand into a fist and placed it against his heart and his other in a fist behind his back.

Shadow and the guys did the same signaling the start of new member and a new reason for Shadow to fight for life.

* * *

_Today was the start of new things for everyone. Shadow had started to work for an organization that help better relations with others countries but under the table and would be always labeled black ops. The Hamato family has welcomed her with opened arms and Shadow started to feel at home. _

_But happiness doesn't last forever but to Shadow as long as she was breathing those called family would continue living now even if she wasn't standing shoulder to shoulder with them in the end. _


End file.
